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The Wood Protection Association (WPA) UK has published interim findings from its 10-year field trial demonstrating the substantial performance benefits of correctly treated wood in ground contact applications. The results show a marked improvement in durability and resistance to decay when compared to untreated timber products. Source: Timberbiz In an online presentation to sponsors of the field trial in June 2025, WPA Director Neil Ryan said the majority of untreated wood posts at the two test sites have now completely failed due to fungal decay, with data suggesting an average service life of less than five years. The study – the largest independent assessment of treated wood ever carried out in the UK – also notably shows that larch posts are failing faster than any other species. “These results clearly show that UK softwood species are not fit for purpose when used in ground contact applications. They also dispel the myth that larch is durable and can be used in this way without preservative treatment,” Mr Ryan said. After 10 years, the preservative-treated posts in the trial are performing well, particularly incised spruce. Some opening of incisions and elevated moisture content has been noted, but without deterioration of the wood. Across all species and treatment types in the trial, there have been only isolated failures of treated posts. “This is not entirely unexpected after 10 years,” Mr Ryan said. “These are clearly outliers on the bell curve of preservative performance, with others in the same species and preservative group rated zero – meaning they still have no visible decay present at all.” WPA Chairman Steve Young added that these results are fantastic news for the wood treatment sector as they provide clear evidence of the huge importance of using correctly treated wood. “We will be promoting these results to the market, in the press and on social media in the weeks ahead, and we advise all WPA members to ensure they are communicating them to their customers, too. WPA is happy to develop text for any member who wishes to promote the fact that correctly treated wood can be trusted to perform,” he said. The WPA set up the field trial in 2015, in partnership with BRE and a group of industry sponsors, with the goal of helping to develop industry standards – including BS 8417 and the WPA Code of Practice, to support WPA Benchmark quality approval schemes for treated wood, and to build market confidence in preservative treated British softwood species. The trial is testing hundreds of wooden posts and stakes at two field test sites: BRE Garston, Watford, England – a London clay loam; and Birnie Wood, Elgin, Scotland – sandy loam overlying gravel deposits. After the completion of the initial 10-year term, the project has been extended for a further five years.

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A company has found a new use for forestry waste that would otherwise be burned, releasing emissions into the atmosphere. Source: Castanet Silvachar Environmental is working to turn forestry waste into biochar, a soil additive that has been used for thousands of years to help retain moisture and lock nutrients into the earth. “Biochar has a high surface area, which allows it to absorb liquid, solids and gasses disproportionate to its size, just due to its surface area and the porosity of it,” said Silvachar’s Kevin Smith. Biochar’s porosity can help in a home garden or even for large agricultural applications. “You think of how much fertilizer gets put on agricultural fields each year or multiple times a year, and realistically they’re losing up to 60% of those nutrients,” Mr Smith said. “Lost through leaching out of the rooting depth of the plant, or if it runs off the surface of the soil into creeks and rivers, causing blue-green algae blooms. “So, what biochar does is actually capture and retain those nutrients but allows the water to still flow through and filter.” Biochar is made from organic material, which is part of what differentiates it from regular charcoal. It also requires more heat to create. “Charcoal is made at a lower temperature; you can make charcoal around 250 to 300 degrees Celsius, whereas biochar starts being made around 400, 450, up to 750 degrees,” he said. “And what it’s basically doing is cooking the biomass at a high temperature in a low oxygen environment.” He said this process speeds up the decomposition of the organic material and cleans out anything else from the cells of the material, “leaving behind the scaffolding of carbon.” Since the company’s process does not involve fully burning the material, it is much lower in emissions than simply burning waste material. “I like to call it cooking,” Mr Smith said. “If you limit the amount of oxygen, then what you’re getting is basically cooking of the material until those gasses reach oxygen, then they combust. “So, it’s a very clean burn because the carbon isn’t burning just the gasses.” Silvachar uses the waste from forestry and logging operations to create the company’s biochar, what Mr Smith says helps reduce the carbon footprint of one of British Columbia’s biggest industries. “After logging, all the tops, limbs and branches and cut ends from the harvesting process gets piled, and currently they get burned,” he said. Silvachar is part of Silvatech Consulting, a forestry consulting business, and this relationship with the logging industry gets the company access to all of the biological waste material it needs. The material is taken from slash piles and ground up “wood chip style,” then put into a reactor to be cooked down into biochar. And since Silvachar’s reactor is movable, it can be taken right to where the waste is being created. “It fits in a 20-foot sea can and it can be loaded on a truck and moved within the day,” Mr Smith said. “We can move our reactor closer to the feedstock, at the valley bottom, rather than trucking the feedstock hundreds of kilometres.” Over time, Mr Smith said Silvachar plans to expand its biochar operations throughout the province to help process the waste generated by logging. “Right now, by burning it, that equates to 9% of the British Columbia’s global emissions each year,” he said. “So, there’s 5 million tons of it that gets burned and we’re looking to at least reduce that as much as we can as we expand.” Mr Smith said biochar is recognized as a carbon negative product for carbon credits, and purifies water, reduces water usage, reduces the need for fertilizers, and can increase crop yield. He said the best way to use biochar for a residential lawn is to mix it with a dry fertilizer and then spread it around like a normal fertilizer. For a home garden use, the product can be mixed into a nutrient-rich topsoil. “It is simply a soil additive which will amplify and retain the nutrients that you do add,” he said. “Once you apply it, it remains in the soil for centuries. “And you can add more fertilizer, compost or manure to your soil, and the biochar will soak that up… and have a nice, slow release during the growing season.”  

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