Plant trees for firewood

Why plant a wood for firewood?

• Firewood is sustainable, it is not reliant on outside suppliers, it means not having to watch prices climb... and could be worth up to £200 a tonne.
   
  Within 7 – 10 years you could be harvesting your own sustainable fuel and have a native woodland to enjoy.
   
   
• Planting trees on your own land will also help keep watercourses clean and gather particulate matter that would otherwise lands on crops.
  
  They lock up carbon and can become a source of timber as they mature.

 

Next step: see how the Woodland Trust can help you plant trees 
 

 

Is burning firewood really green?

Using wood as fuel to produce heat and possibly power can be an excellent low carbon alternative to coal, oil and gas, but it depends on having a local, sustainable supply.

The carbon released when wood is burned is effectively recaptured by growing replacement trees.
 
This is much better than using fossil fuels, which add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere: using woodfuel avoids those extra emissions.

 

Next step: see how the Woodland Trust can help you plant trees 
 

 

Which trees are good for fuel?

The best ones are ash, because ash wood burns well without drying, cherry, oak, birch and hornbeam and many other native broadleaf trees are also suitable.

 

Next step: see how the Woodland Trust can help you plant trees 
 

 

How does coppicing work?

Coppicing works when a young, native tree is trimmed to the ground it produces abundant secondary grow.

From the earliest neolithic settlement, coppiced woodland has supplied wood for fuel.

 

Next step: see how the Woodland Trust can help you plant trees