Mechanical planter used to restock conifers inWelsh Government forestry

NATURAL Resources Wales (NRW) has trialled the use of a mechanical planter to plant conifer trees on the Welsh Governnment’s woodland estate.

Some 75,000 trees have been planted over the past few weeks on 65 acres of land in the Clocaenog and Tywi Forest – an area roughly the size of nearly 50 football pitches.

NRW contractors Dulnain Plant used a machine which prepares the ground and plants the saplings at the same time.

The work will contribute to NRW’s overall programme of planting four million trees, made up of 35 conifer and broadleaf species, on more than 4,400 acres of land Wales-wide this year.

This restocking programme is part of NRW’s response to tackling the tree disease that affects larch, P Ramorum.

NRW forestry operations manager Neil Muir said: “Mechanical planting is efficient and cost-effective – we can plant around 1,000 to 1,500 trees every day depending on site conditions.

“We will be monitoring this work closely to see if the same approach can be used at other sites.

“We will still rely heavily on manual planting but this method may allow us to extend the planting season.”

For this replanting scheme, conifer trees were delivered from the Forestry Commission nursery at Delamere, in Cheshire.

NRW manages 126,000 hectares of mainly conifer woodlands in Wales and provides around 770,000 tonnes of timber to the industry each year.

The woodlands provide wider benefits as well. Trees help reduce the effects of climate change by taking in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

NRW-managed forests are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, which means they are managed in a way that meets the highest environmental and social standards.