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Sefton volunteers turn timber into woodland products

25 March 2013

Local volunteers and apprentices are helping to transform spare timber from trees felled
in Sefton's coastal woodlands into countryside products.

 

Forestry company UPM Tilhill, contractor Mike Gillett and haulier Les Hughes have donated pine logs from their contract at Formby's coastal woodlands to a local social enterprise, Workshop Wardens.

 

With the help of local volunteers and apprentices, the logs will be used to create picnic tables, seating and litter bins, which will be eventually used in the coastal woodlands.

 

Nigel Blandford of The Mersey Forest said, "Sefton Council's Coast and Countryside young apprentices will turn the logs into planks, and they'll then go into their workshop and be turned into useful items by a group of adults with learning difficulties.

 

"The project will not only give individuals the opportunity to gain new skills, it will also provide useful woodland items which will be used by the public when they explore the coastal woodlands."

 

Mark Morgan of UPM Tilhill said, "It's great to be able to carry out a commercial contract that also has a strong environmental and social dimension."

 

The essential woodland maintenance work currently being carried out at Sefton's coastal woodlands has been organised by The Mersey Forest and is being principally carried out to improve the habitat for Merseyside's isolated population of red squirrels.

 

The project has seen some 4000 tonnes of wood harvested for saw logs, chipboard and wood fuel. It will be followed up with the replanting of 20,000 new pine trees in the autumn, which will guarantee a source of food for the red squirrels in the future.

 

The Mersey Forest has been able to coordinate this woodland contract on behalf of four major landowners with help from the Heritage Lottery funded Sefton Landscape Partnership Scheme.



Related documents:
PRESS RELEASE: Sefton volunteers turn timber into woodland products
25 March 2013
Local volunteers and apprentices are helping to transform spare timber from trees felled
in Sefton’s coastal woodlands into countryside products.
pdf iconView 12-03 Sefton coastal woodland products.pdf press release (20.13 KB)

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