Springbok Co-op to produce 100% of own wood chip by 2019
Following the grant of planning permission for a woodchip storage barn on a site a few hundred yards to the biomass installation, Springbok Co-op has announced that it expects to be able to move to producing 100% of the 250 tonnes of wood chip it needs annually to supply the Springbok boilers by the end of 2019. The Co-op is currently stockpiling very low quality roundwood and “brash” from the woodlands in the immediate area. This timber product is of no interest to the commercial timber trade and would otherwise be left to rot down in the woods (suppressing the…
Reducing heat losses in distribution
For those of you at the AGM earlier in the summer, you may remember that one of the Directors, Martin Crane, produced some rather stark figures for the heat losses running into thousands of pounds per annum particularly from Estate North – the system supplying the bungalows and maisonettes down the longer heat main. This is a cost the co-op has to bear as we don’t get paid for losses between the boiler house and the RHI meters which is fair enough as far as the RHI is concerned (for anybody reading this blog for the first time, this isn’t…
More space for wildlife pays off
Springbok Director Tom Parker has written up a visit he made to my wood on Rosemary Lane: I visited the woods around in mid-July with a friend from my days at Kew Gardens, Carolin and she then took the pictures below. It was my first chance to see the newly opened up rides following the felling and clearing. The work had been done sensitively and in reasonably dry conditions so we now have the maximum amount of good habitat for woodland wildflowers and butterflies. The clearing of the brash in particular creates much more space for wildlife than in many…
Opening up the rides
Opening up the rides in our wood next to Springbok in February this year and removing the felled wood (see below) has already made a big difference to the woodland biodiversity. On a visit on 2 July which was a nice, sunny day I was elated by the number of large orange butterflies which were subsequently identified for me by Tom Parker as Silver Washed Fritillaries. There were also Meadow Brown and Large White. That may not sound that exciting but bear in mind that for the last 6 years the only butterfly to be spotted in these woods had…
Progress with managing the woodland
The work in the wood is now complete for the time being. It was taken in stages to minimise the impact on the ground. This summer we just worked on the ‘rides’ i.e. the old tracks and paths through the wood which were opened up again. As the rides hadn’t been planted for timber very few mature trees were removed, the exception being any Turkey Oak which we could access. A few words on Turkey Oak. Turkey Oaks were introduced as an ornamental tree a couple of centuries ago but they have now spread into native woodland. It…
New access to the woodland
The Co-op has been given access by Mike and Kathy Smyth to work in their 37 acres of woodland which adjoins Springbok Estate. This hasn’t had any serious management for some decades and is overgrown and difficult to access so first of all the rides are being opened up and widened. The work is being undertaken by a local forest contractor, Joe Court. Almost all the timber being felled has no market value but should have a biomass value to the Co-op because it is so close to the boiler house so transportation costs can be kept down.