An Introduction to the Forestry and Timber Industries

Types of Forest

There are two main types of forest in Britain, deciduous and coniferous. Click on the images to load a larger version of each picture.

Oak seedling 8Kb

This young oak seedling will grow in time to be part of a deciduous oak woodland

  
Mature Oak 9Kb The Oak tree grows tall and broad, under which many plants and animals thrive.  
Oak forest 8Kb Oak Woods, New Forest, Hampshire  
Kielder forest 6Kb A view of the (largely) coniferous Kielder Forest in Northumberland, looking over Kielder Water  
Old Scots Pine 6Kb View of a pine in the Caledonian Pine Forest of Scotland. Some trees live in excess of 450 years old.  
     
Kielder forest 6Kb View of Kielder Forest in Northumberland. This is largely a working coniferous forest, grown and managed by a government agency called Forest Enterprise.  
Forest Wildlife There is a large variety of wildlife living in our forests and woodlands. These are examples of some of the plants and animals:  
Red Fox 6Kb Red Fox
Long eared bat 6Kb Common Long Eared Bat
Hedgehog 8Kb Hedgehog
Fly Agaric 6Kb Fly Agaric
Foxglove 7Kb Foxglove
   
Red Squirrel 5Kb Red Squirrel
Curlew 6Kb Curlew
Forest Management  
Pine seedlings 7Kb Conifers (Douglas Fir) are being grown in tree nurseries and will soon be ready to plant out in the Forest  
Planting tree seedlings 6Kb Planting conifers (Sitka Spruce) on a site which was felled a few years before  
Pine seedling 8Kb Some areas of forest naturally regenerate again after being felled. This young Sitka Spruce will soon be the size of those brought in from the nursery to plant out  
Tree havesting machine 8Kb In large commercial forests such as Kielder and Hamsterley, tree are felled by large computer controlled machines called Harvesters The Harvester takes hold of large conifers, strips all the side branches, fells it, then cuts it into the right size of logs for the customer  
Chainsaw 8Kb In smaller woodlands felling is carried out manually using a chainsaw. It would be neither financially viable nor environmentally sustainable to fell with a large Harvester.  
     
Stacked logs 6Kb A machine called a Forwarder collects the logs, and takes them to roadside, where they are stacked ready for loading onto lorries

Log ends 8Kb 		 
Timber lorries loading logs at roadside and transported out of the forest to sawmills and woodchip plants such as Egger at Hexham in Northumberland

Timber Lorry 6Kb

  
In some places, such as in areas of Scotland, logs are transported by boat to the sawmill Loading timber onto a ship 5KbTimber store 6Kb
Other aspects of woodland and forest management
Chainsaw course 7Kb There are many jobs within forestry and woodland management. These students are being trained in chainsaw use  
There are many forms of human impact on forests and woodlands, e.g. they are used for recreation in the form of walking, horse riding, cycling and motor sport. Unfortunately some aspects of human impact such as fly tipping have a negative effect

Information board 6KbCar Rally 6KbFly tipping 7Kb

Hores Riding 6Kb

  
     
Making Charcoal 7Kb

Some deciduous woodlands are managed to make products such as charcoal and hurdles (traditional fences made of hazel)

  

 


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