An interesting topic indeed, not least because a tree manager not far from
me is trying to find a sum or figure for annual maintenance so he can bid
for a contract.
Its true that the sorts of figures bandied about bear almost no relation to
the annual sums professional foresters are familiar with which are tiny by
comparison but then local authority grounds maintenance financing isn't
very like traditional estate accounting, or the economic wizardry of
productive forest accounting.
Maybe its because I failed elementary maths O level 3 times but I would
first of all avoid any calculations involving discounting and just find a
figure at today's prices then let someone else adjust it as necessary for
the next nine years.
Then I would try and exclude all matters silvicultural which are rarely
relevant to local authority woods (cue strong disagreement). That leaves
you with simple straightforward tasks that are common currency, like litter
picking and swiping rides/footpaths.
Naturally you will want an annual sum based perhaps on BTCV task days for
community based small work, then you will want a contingency sum for burned
out cars and dangerous trees over footpaths. Whatever you do keep capital
expenditure well away from revenue calculations.
They might want a simple price per hectare per annum but I wouldn't let them
have anything that does not reflect the complexity of the calculation. If
you're spending most of your cash on footpath maintenance that is more
effectively expressed as per linear metre at such and such a frequency, to
merge it into a woodland square metre isn't fair on the wood.
I don't recall Rodney Helliwell's letter on the subject of continuous cover
forestry to which Mike refers but I do know that CCFG genuinely addresses
the economics of production forestry, can be very management-intensive at
the conversion stage, and is usually quoted in the amenity context as some
kind of spurious justification for doing a little bit here and there every
now and again.
As to national guidance, like Elton says it must vary so much site to site
as to make that impossible.
Quoting "Garnett, Richard" <RGarnett@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.gov.uk>:
Dear all
A quick question on the cost of woodland maintenance for 10 years because
of disagreement with woodland to be adopted by the LPA in the future.
Based on minimum maintenance regime, the cost of maintaining a m2 per
annum would be 74.5 pence. Therefore, £7.45 for 10 years per m2.
10,000 sq metres = 1 hectare so maintenance of 1ha woodland for 10 years
would be £74,500.
Is my maths bad regarding the placing of the decimal point because £74k
for minimal maintenance over 10 years appears excessive, especially for
minimal maintenance like litter picking and odd tree surgery work.
Does anybody know of any national guidance or recognised guidance on cost
of a m2 of woodland or cost for a hectare for a year
Thanks
Richard
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