Timber removed from coppice woodlands for the most part goes to make fence posts – these have a limited life before they need replacing (20 years?) and most uses of these poles are for renewing existing fence lines. Poles that are removed either rot or burn, releasing stored CO2 back to the atmosphere.

In other managed woodland timber is extracted for use in the construction industry. Again, timber frame buildings have limited lives (particularly modern buildings, as opposed to historic oak framed buildings) and waste timber in the construction industry is often landfilled or burned. Where timber in a building is being renewed this couldn’t really be counted as new carbon storage.

I suspect that the net contribution to CO2 reduction is substantially lower than simply the tonnage of carbon extracted from the forestry site.

I’m glad you mentioned biochar: a great use for the millions of tonnes of waste wood that the UK produces every year, much of which currently goes into landfill.

Can I briefly respond to the point about mature forests not absorbing CO2? Unmanaged woodlands will gradually cease to take in CO2, although even very old and untouched forests do provide a small amount of net CO2 storage. Actively managed coppice land can continually absorb large volumes of CO2 per hectare. The Forestry Commission report mentions (if I remember correctly) 15 tonnes per hectare per year. This storage arises because the wood is chopped down every four years and regrows. So even if we keep the amount of land under forestry constant, we can still use this land for substantial net sequestration, for ever. If much of the wood is used for biochar, even better, since this would add to UK soil carbon stores and reduce the need for artificial fertilisers. (Please see the article on Gathorne-Hardy’s experiments on this site).

Chris