Natural Resource Wales: Bike Park Wales - 13th Sept - 5th Dec 2023
We worked with Natural Resource Wales to harvest part of the forest as part of our Bike Park Wales project. This site had been allocated but left for over 18 months, before being re-allocated to us to ensure the work was completed.
Challenges
This site came with some challenges, which we were more than happy and capable to accommodate. Bike Park Wales is a huge tourism destination that operates everyday with high traffic. Because of this there were 2 restrictions put in place:
1. Only 6x loads were allowed to be collected per day.
2. Collections were only accessible overnight, to avoid any potential disruption to the day to day operations of the site.
Bike Park Wales Project & Equipment
The forest that needed harvesting covered an area of 12.5ha, with 6,391 trees needing to be collected. At the end of the project, this equated to 4,780 tonnes collected in total, which works out at 150 tonnes per day.
For this project, we used a range of different specialist machines and equipment that we own:
Komatsu Harvester
Komatsu Forwarder
Volvo with winch
Lorries for collection
Within less than a month of starting work on this site, we had completed over 20% of the work and collections. This project started on the 13th of September 2023 and was completed on the 5th of December with our final lorry load leaving the site. The whole project took just 83 days from start to finish, operating fully within the site restrictions.
Quality and Sustainability
Of course, speed is only part of the job, we pride ourselves in the quality of our workmanship and team. Firstly, we ensure that the whole tree is used and leave nothing to waste, compared to most contractors, that will leave the brash on site as it's of little value to them. Once harvested the wood is sent to be turned into finished sawn wood from our sawmill and the brash is used as boiler fuel for our CHP plant and biomass boiler. Any waste from these processes are used to turn into wood pellets. The biomass boiler is used to power and enable us to create our wood pellets, and the heat generated from this process is used to kiln dry our logs.
Furthermore, having the brash removed from the site has other benefits too. As mentioned, we use it for fuel for our CHP plant. It also allows for much better forestry regeneration. With the brash being removed, it helps with the replanting process, making it much quicker, easier and more efficient.
Client Feedback
This was a great site to work with Natural Resource Wales on and its always great to hear any client feedback we receive. Here's Dylan Enoch, their Officer Forest Operations South Central following a pre-completion site visit:
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you from everyone in the forest operations team here in South Central.
Me included the colleagues who attended the Pre completion meeting Friday have all reiterated the same message of WOW this site has been worked brilliantly, from day one until now the work carried out on site has been of the highest standards, when things have been asked by myself tasks were completed in a timely fashion, it's also good to see you investing the time into youngsters and allowing them to learn and develop their skills within an ageing industry, once upon a time I was one of the youngsters pulling on choker chains on steep Welsh mountain sides.
If you have a project you would like to work with us on, or if you are looking for any specialist machinery to hire, please contact us and we will be happy to help.
