Trees are such a familiar part of our landscape and lives that it can be easy to overlook just how much they provide. They capture carbon as they grow, create habitats for wildlife, help manage rainfall, cool our towns and cities and provide spaces that can really benefit our physical and mental wellbeing. 

They also provide wood, one of our oldest and most versatile renewable materials, which can be used for everything from buildings and furniture to fencing, paper and, when sourced responsibly, fuel. The Stove Industry Association has recently highlighted this wider story following the Government’s announcement of £79 million in new funding for nature recovery and climate resilience. Of that funding, £53 million will support the planting of up to 500,000 new trees in England between 2027 and 2030. 

Healthy woodlands need management 

It is perhaps easy to assume that the best thing we can do for a woodland is simply to leave every tree untouched, when in reality, many woodlands benefit from careful management over time. The Forestry Commission explains that sustainable woodland management can make woods healthier and more resilient to climate change, pests and disease. Techniques such as thinning and coppicing can create space and allow more light to reach the woodland floor, supporting greater biodiversity. 

This is something we looked at previously through Sandi Toksvig’s experience of managing her own ancient woodland. When Sandi became the custodian of a fifteen acre woodland, she discovered that years without management had left parts of it overcrowded and short of light. She undertook selective cutting to create the conditions for younger trees, plants and wildlife to flourish. 

This raises an important practical question – what should happen to the wood that responsible management produces? 

Making good use of the wood we harvest 

Not every piece of timber removed from a woodland can become furniture or construction material. However, the smaller stems and branch wood that thinning, coppicing, pruning and forestry work produces still have significant value. 

The Forestry Commission when discussing the economics of woodland management makes the point that harvesting and selling wood can help pay for essential work. It makes continued management financially viable, while sustainable production can sit alongside objectives such as biodiversity and nature recovery. 

In Sandi’s case, selling firewood created a vital income source that could be reinvested into maintaining the woodland, while giving local people access to a useful resource that might otherwise have had little economic value. 

This does not mean every tree should become firewood and it makes sense that higher value and longer lived uses for good timber should be prioritised where appropriate. However, the important point is that well managed woodland produces different grades and sizes of wood, and using those resources intelligently can help support the management cycle. 

Woodland to warmth 

Responsibly sourced dry logs can provide useful secondary heat when burned correctly in a modern stove. As the SIA points out, this also gives wood fuel an important resilience value that many people rely on. A stove can provide warmth without depending directly on the electricity grid, which can be particularly useful during power interruptions or for households looking for greater flexibility in how they heat their home. 

How that wood is burned is important and moving away from open fires and older appliances towards modern Ecodesign stoves is a key step. A modern stove can extract significantly more useful heat from wood than an open fire, meaning less fuel is needed to provide the same warmth. Also using appropriately seasoned wood with a moisture content of 20 per cent or less, and maintaining the stove and chimney correctly all help ensure that the wood is used as efficiently and responsibly as possible.  

Essential Stove Tips   

A living cycle 

Perhaps the most useful way to think about woodland is as a living cycle rather than something that is static. Trees are planted and allowed to grow, providing habitat, capturing carbon and enriching our landscapes. Woodlands are then carefully managed so that they remain healthy, and diverse. Useful timber is harvested for a wide variety of uses and new growth is encouraged and then the cycle continues. 

Sandi Toksvig’s story demonstrated how this can work on a human scale and how responsible woodland management can encourage biodiversity, provide useful timber and fuel, create income for future conservation work and bring local communities together to care for the landscape. 

At Charnwood, we believe responsibly sourced wood fuel has a place within that cycle. When woodlands need managing and useful wood is produced as part of that process, using some of it for fuel can be a sensible way forward. By planting well, managing responsibly, using what our woodlands provide intelligently, we can leave healthy, resilient woods for the generations that follow.