West Norfolk farmer and woodland owner Edward Brun, who is also chairman of woodchip co-operative Anglia Woodfuels www.angliawoodfuels.co.uk , has won a top award in the country’s premier forestry competition - the Royal Forestry Society Excellence in Forestry Awards.
One of four categories, The RFS Silviculture Award is presented to woodlands primarily growing trees for commercial timber. This year it was won jointly by Edward Brun and Miles Barne of Sotterley Estate in Suffolk. Judges described the silviculture management of Edward Brun’s Fulmodeston Severals and Hindolveston Wood as ’exemplary’.
Fulmodeston Severals consists of 76ha managed mainly for a wide variety of conifers and has a history dating back to the 17th century. In the late 19th century and into the 20th century the then owners, successive Earls of Leicester, planted exotic conifers and shrubs to find out the most suitable species to grow locally.
Since 1979 vigorous efforts have been made to rehabilitate the wood to increase capital value and make it fully productive. Management has ranged from clear felling and restocking to light thinning, group planting and natural regeneration. In all 20% of the wood has been re-stocked.
Hindolveston Wood consists of 69.3ha and is an ancient woodland site managed under oak standards until the mid 30s. At the time of the Doomsday survey it belonged to the Episcopal See of Norwich and continued in church hands until the 1853. The oak standards were clear felled during World War II and the whole wood was replanted with mainly oak between 1949 and 1951.
Edward Brun says: ’The woods have won previous awards and I am delighted that they have been recognised again. We have a healthy demand for our produce and are increasingly being contacted to provide specialist orders for timber and coppice products.
’Nearly all the work in our woods is done at piece work rates by local skilled and dedicated contractors, which enables us to control our costs and price our products accordingly. In the last two years, the market for hardwood thinnings for firewood and softwood chipwood has made a tremendous difference to the profitability of our woodland.’
