Changing Perceptions and Learning to Love Sitka Spruce

Just 13,000 hectares of trees were planted this year, a drop of 7%, and 43% of the national target of 30,000 hectares.

The issue was discussed at the recent launch of the 2023 UK Forest Market Report, produced in partnership with Goldcrest Land and Forestry Group launched in London and Edinburgh 2023 during it’s 26th year of publication.

The report is produced annually and provides an in-depth study of the UK commercial forestry and woodland investment market, from the perspective of both buyers and sellers. It has been produced since the late 1990s and is considered to be the most comprehensive publicly available record of forestry transactions in the UK. 

Forestry experts examined public attitude to spruce trees, the industry’s commercial crop and the workhorse of our timber industry, and questioned why it is considered by many to be undesirable. Spruce is a commercial crop, as fundamental as potatoes – and arguably more versatile in the scope of what it delivers – but the latter is considerably more respected by the public.

Given the urgent need to grow more UK timber – and meet climate mitigation obligations – how can the industry make spruce trees more acceptable?

Watch now as ffinlo Costain speaks with our Head of Forestry Investment Xander Mahony about how the UK needs to learn to love Sitka spruce and that forestry leaders must band together to change public attitudes of spruce trees and commercial forestry.