SYLVA • reviving our wood culture

September 24, 2010

myForest Service at APF 2010

This week we have been meeting people who make a living in the forestry sector at Europe’s largest exhibition: APF 2010. The exhibition is held every two years, and this year was held at Cannock Chase in Staffordshire.

We are grateful to our main partner in the myForest Service, ConFor, for allowing us to share their stand and help us promote the service to the industry.

We spoke with many people face to face, and distributed a lot of leaflets. The overall response has been very positive with most people, often being made aware of the service for first time, commending the concept of the service and committing to signing up and ‘joining the woodchain’. It has also been very encouraging to meet a few existing users of the myForest Service.

We look forward to more businesses and woodlands appearing on the myForest maps over the coming weeks. As we stressed to those we met at the APF 2010, we welcome comments and feedback from users. Our ultimate aim is to create a truly useful service for the forestry sector.

Find out more about the myForest Service

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September 20, 2010

OneOak school wins Excellence in Forestry prize

Category: Announcements, OneOak project

Children of Bladon C of E Primary School recently travelled to the Weald Wood Fair in East Sussex to receive their first prize in the Excellence in forestry awards from the Royal Forestry Society.

The school were awarded the prestigious prize for their work in the OneOak project with the Sylva Foundation during 2009 and 2010. The children, accompanied by their former teacher Mrs Caroyln Thorne (recently retired) and parents, were presented with a cheque of £1000 for their school, a wooden trophy and a framed certificate.

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September 15, 2010

Oak seedlings are thriving

Category: The Tree

We are delighted to report that about 50 young oak seedlings have been raised successfully by Nicholsons, ready to be planted at the OneOak site this coming Winter.

If you have been following the story about the seeds so far, you will know that the OneOak tree did not produce any viable seeds in the Autumn before it was felled. However, with the help of school children and the staff at Blenheim Palace we did manage to collect acorns (oak seed) from some of the wonderful ancient oaks around the Blenheim Estate. These fifty oak seedlings have been skilfully raised by the nurserymen and women at Nicholsons during this summer. We will need to bring in some additional 200 other oak seedlings ready for the planting of the site this Winter. Every one of the 250 children who watched the tree being felled, and who have been working in so many other ways with us in the OneOak project, will soon be returning to the woodland to each plant one young tree.

: OneOak Seedlings at Nicholsons. Photo Jane King.

: OneOak Seedlings at Nicholsons. Photo Jane King.

Our thanks to Jane King for the photos, and our admiration to Nicholsons for their green fingers.

You can read more about the seed story by searching for ‘seeds’ in the search box.

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September 12, 2010

TreeWatch pilot – six weeks remaining

Category: TreeWatch

Our pilot of the TreeWatch initiative has been progressing well over the summer. About 50 horse chestnut trees have been adopted and surveyed across the UK, and one in the south of France. Volunteers from the Tree Council and EarthWatch have been asked to help us develop and test the website, and to tell us about their experiences in adopting and surveying trees.

We will continue to survey the distribution of the horse chestnut leaf miner pest until the end of October. So, it’s not too late for you to sign up and have a go yourself – it is open to any member of the public.

Horse Chestnut trees affected by the pest are very easy to spot at the moment. They appear to have turned autumnal while other tree species around them are still in their summer greenery.

To find out more and to get involved see www.TreeWatch.com

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September 9, 2010

myForest stand at APF 2010

Category: Exhibitions, myForest

We are looking forward to exhibiting at the APF 2010 show between 23-25 September.

The APF is the forest industry’s showcase and typically attracts over 15,000 visitors. Read more.

With thanks to our partners ConFor for allowing us to share their stand (Stand I 1&2 – next to the PoleClimbing) to jointly promote the myForest service.

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September 6, 2010

OneOak tree weight competition – the winning answer

Category: OneOak project, The Tree

In May we launched an online competition to Guess the Weight of the OneOak tree – read more.

The competition closed at the end of August and we have one lucky winner who will receive a beautiful hand-carved bowl, made by master craftsman Martin Damen (see Martin Damen’s website).

The winning answer of 14.662 tonnes was only 277kg out from the correct answer of 14.385 tonnes (14385 kg). Two runner up prizes will be presented, for the next two nearest guesses of 15.100 and 15.421 tonnes.

Foresters use tables to estimate the volume and weight of timber from a tree but these exclude the crownwood. As you can see below, the crownwood actually weighed more than the tree’s massive stem; effectively 58% of the total weight. This answer seems to have foxed even some of the best scientists who had a go at estimating the tree’s total weight.

The complete weight details:

Stem to timber height 6036kg

Branchwood to 7cm 6137kg

Branchwood 7 – 4cm 1000kg

Lop&top < 4cm 1212kg

Total Wt 14385kg

Thank you to Ian Craig and colleagues of Forest Research who worked tirelessly over two days in the cold and wet to weigh every limb, branch and twig of the OneOak tree, and who then completed some serious number crunching in the laboratories of Forest Research at Alice Holt.

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myForest Service at APF 2010

OneOak school wins Excellence in Forestry prize

Oak seedlings are thriving

TreeWatch pilot – six weeks remaining

myForest stand at APF 2010

OneOak tree weight competition – the winning answer