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Last year was another year of high seedling deliveries from SCA. Nearly 100 million seedlings were delivered to private forest owners and SCA’s own forests. Source: Timberbiz, Photo: Michael Engman “It feels good to be able to contribute with seedlings of high quality that provide good growth in Sweden’s forests, and thus significant climate benefits,” Thomas Vestman, head of NorrPlant, SCA’s seedling operations said. “It was a good delivery year, despite the prolonged winter. But when summer arrived, it came early in May which put our nurseries in full speed. We see however, that more and more customers choose to plant in August, which has now become our largest delivery month. That’s good, because it’s perfectly fine to plant well into the autumn,” Mr Vestman said. Most of SCA’s seedlings are purchased by private forest owners throughout Sweden. The remaining share, about 40%, is used in SCA’s own forests in both Sweden and the Baltics. The primary tree species that SCA sells is pine, followed by spruce and lodgepole pine. The deliveries of larch seedlings slightly decreased last year. “On the other hand, our deliveries of high-refined seedlings increased, which come from what we call third-generation seed material. These are seedlings that grow even better, up to 25% better, than uncultivated forests. This means that the forest owners get forests that grow better throughout the cycle time,” Mr Vestman explained. “Also, our deliveries of frozen seedlings were high last year. Last year’s initiative to send them directly to customers via shipping companies was successful and continues this year. In fact, we have already sold almost all frozen seedlings for 2025. But if you haven’t bought your seedlings for this year’s plantations yet, we’ll arrange it.” Every fourth seedling comes from SCA Around 400 million seedlings are planted in Sweden every year. SCA’s extensive deliveries mean that almost every fourth seedling planted in Sweden comes from SCA. “I am proud that we have the power to make a difference and contribute to more forest in Sweden. Our seedlings are the engine in SCA’s climate benefits. First, they bind carbon dioxide while they grow, and when harvested eventually, they provide sustainable wood raw material for a variety of products,” Mr Vestman said. In 2024, SCA became part-owner in the SE-technology and the pilot facility developed and operated by SweTree Technologies in Umeå. “With SE-technology, somatic embryogenesis, you can quickly and efficiently produce more seedlings. Just one single seed can give rise to many embryos, which then are cultivated into new seedlings. Getting the best possible plant material is extremely important. It’s about creating forests that grow well and withstand the future climate without damage,” Niklas Borgh, a breeding specialist at NorrPlant said. Last year, SCA also invested in seed extraction. Using an in-house developed kiln and seed separator, SCA can now dry process cones to extract seeds from their own pine plantations. Seed extraction cones – means to make get the cones to open up and release the seeds. It may sound simple but requires a quality-assured working method to avoid damaging the valuable seeds. “We are learning more and more and are gradually increasing the proportion of seed extraction. In this way, we both increase our competence and create winter employment in our otherwise highly seasonal business,” Mr Vestman said. “I look forward to yet another exciting seedling year, where we continue to optimize our production and deliver quality seedlings to the country’s forest owners.”

In a move towards sustainable wind energy, Senvion, one of the key wind turbine OEMs in India, has joined forces with a German wooden wind turbine blade manufacturer, Voodin Blade Technology GmbH to develop and manufacture high-performance wooden wind turbine blades for Senvion’s 4.2 MW wind turbine platform. Source: Timberbiz “We have evaluated Voodin’s technology and see great potential in terms of sustainability and flexibility,” Amit Kansal, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director of Senvion India said. The partnership will begin with a comprehensive feasibility study to evaluate the technical, economic, and environmental potential of wooden turbine blades, followed by the installation and testing of prototype blades. “We are excited to collaborate with Senvion India on this groundbreaking initiative. This partnership allows us to bring our innovative wooden blade technology to a new scale and reinforces our mission to create a more sustainable and recyclable future for the wind energy industry. “Wooden wind turbine blades are not only an innovative technological advancement but also a significant leap toward a more sustainable wind energy ecosystem,” Tom Siekmann, CEO of Voodin Blade Technology GmbH said. Building on Voodin’s success in deploying prototype wooden blades in Germany in 2024, this collaboration sets the stage for a new era of sustainable, high-performance wind energy solutions. Voodin Blade Technology GmbH specializes in creating sustainable wood-based wind turbine blades using LVL to enhance performance and reduce environmental impact. This strategic collaboration represents a major step forward in tackling one of the wind industry’s biggest challenges, blade recyclability, by integrating engineered wood, a renewable and recyclable material, into turbine blade design. In addition to its sustainability benefits, Voodin’s innovative LVL production technology eliminates the need for moulds, significantly reduces manufacturing energy consumption, and ensures consistent quality through advanced automation. This flexible, mould-independent approach allows for seamless scalability and adaptability to meet diverse customer needs while reducing the significant CAPEX associated with traditional blade production. “The strategic alliance between Senvion India and Voodin Blades will transform the future of wind turbine blade production. These companies are innovative, creative and flexible, and will help our path towards achieving a sustainable world forever,” Dr PKC Bose, Co-Founder & Managing Director of ENREGO Energy GmbH, partners of Voodin Blade Technology GmbH said.  

A wearable camera typically used to record the daring feats of skydivers or other thrill-seekers could also be a practical tool down on the ground, University of Alberta research shows. Source: Timberbiz By capturing hundreds of images in a short time in a greenhouse experiment, a GoPro was able to monitor the growth of tree seedlings as reliably as humans, according to the study. “This shows that the GoPro may be a viable alternative to manual measurements, which could provide several benefits to low-tech greenhouses serving the forestry industry,” says Sarun Khadka, who conducted the work to earn a master of science in forest biology and management from the Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences. Using the camera’s time-lapse mode, Khadka monitored germination, growth and survival of lodgepole pine seedlings in a commercial tree nursery. The images were captured over six months, then analyzed using software. The results showed that the germination count from the GoPro in week seven of the growing cycle closely matched the final seedling count recorded in week 24, “indicating the reliability of the image-based counts,” Ms Khadka said. Similarly, there was no significant difference recorded in height when 15-week-old seedlings were measured using the camera images, compared with manual measurements. The study demonstrates how such “high throughput” technology can help address challenges in low-tech, large-scale greenhouse operations faced with manual counting and measurements, Ms Khadka suggests. “Taking manual measurements is highly tedious and time-consuming, and as a result, nurseries often rely on a small sample size to estimate germination rates, which could fail to accurately represent the entire seedlot.” As well, manually measuring the height is invasive to the tender plants, and tight bench space also makes it physically difficult, she adds. While it would come with one-time costs to buy the equipment and train staff, using the technology would also likely be less expensive than installing a greenhouse-wide camera system. Using GoPro technology could give commercial greenhouses and the forest industry a jump on providing the best estimates of plant performance in the early stages of growth, says Khadka, noting that constant monitoring and tracking of the entire greenhouse is important for a nursery working to meet the total seedling order for a forest company. “Our results show that this technology can bring the value of big data, in terms of capturing a large volume of images that can be analyzed, to improve efficiency in low-tech nurseries,” Ms Khadka said. The research was funded through the Industrial Research Chair in Tree Improvement held by Barb R. Thomas, professor and associate dean (research) in ALES, and supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries Inc., ANC Timber Ltd., West Fraser Mills Ltd. (Sundre Forest Products, Hinton Wood Products, Blue Ridge Lumber and Slave Lake Veneer), the Grande Prairie and Whitecourt divisions of Canfor Ltd., and Weyerhaeuser Company (Grande Prairie and Pembina Timberlands).

Edith Cowan University’s (ECU) collaborative study with NASA, IGNIS Project, has just completed its first round of aerial data collection which has used infrared cameras to analyse the terrain in Western Australia’s south-east region to select areas for a lighting mapping network. Source: Timberbiz “The airborne part of this study has just completed 10 flying days, that’s more than 50 flying hours, covering 10,000 kilometres, which is the equivalent to one million hectares or 2.2 million acres,” IGNIS Project Lead, ECU Executive Dean, Professor Paulo de Souza said. “We now have the task of analysing 50,000 images to locate areas where lightning could strike and spark a potentially catastrophic fire. “Our team will be busy crunching all data giving our students an opportunity to learn advanced aerospace techniques.” The IGNIS Project is a multi-agency collaboration with the US Space agency, NASA, and The University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Canberra, The University of Adelaide, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), and The University of Newcastle. The airborne mission is being supported by 10 to 14 lightning ground stations deployed across eastern Australia. The ground network will be operated in collaboration with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Centre and the SWIRLL (Severe Weather Institute Radar and Lightning Laboratories) of the University of Alabama, in Huntsville. Later in the year this network will be complemented by a lightning sensor installed on an aircraft. These flight campaigns will also be supported by a thermal sensor developed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre. The next stage of IGNIS would involve the launch of a 12U satellite to map and track thermal and lightning patterns from Low Earth Orbit. “This project could take several years to complete but could change the way lightning is studied well into the future and could potentially change the way fires are fought not only in Australia, but around the world,” Professor de Souza said.