https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57920510

Perhaps a good start is https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/articles/what-is-sustainable-forestry

And as is often pointed out, the oceans and peat bogs and specific types of tree environments such as mangrove swamps are more important than trees in general.

But to answer the original question: I think prices will come back down again once the supply problems resolve themselves, but I don't think they'll go down as far as to what they were. i.e. I think prices have gone permanently up, but not as far as the present price.

I think there is a plan. I don't think the ash trees are being felled haphazardly; I've seen several stories of whole plantations being cut down. And I understand they need to leave them standing until they are affected in order to discover which ones are not affected and so have resistance that can be used to propagate new trees for the future. Unfortunately I also understand this means the wood cannot be used for structural purposes and is indeed sold for firewood etc. Hopefully some of that will be local but perhaps some will go to places like Drax and displace some imported fuel.

Last year the word from a professional tree surgeon was that all ash were going to die, and farmers were prioritising felling those alongside roads because of public liability concerns. We put our name down on his waiting list, but he has so many lined up that it will be years at this rate.
Meanwhile we did an assessment of every ash and marked those that we judged most severely affected. I can tackle any of ours that are away from the road, because it doesn't really matter which way they fall. I was hesitant about felling some of those along the road because of closeness to phone and broadband cables. It's only a tiny lane so no problems about closing the lane for a short while just to get a fallen trunk clear.

This year we went round again checking, and were surprised to find that most of those affected last year have recovered, some totally. One or two are clearly now dead, and several apparently on their way, but only the thinner and easy ones to fell.

So the urgency, for this year, has gone.

My theory, from observing our own trees and those nearby, is that:

1) a cold winter knocks back whatever is attacking them
2) the more isolated a tree is the healthier it is likely to be.
3) the 25% thinning we carried out 2 years ago has let more air through the wood and has helped the remaining trees
4) trees to windward are healthier
5) individuals can recover

Whether any of this will still be true given time is anybody's guess. They may still all be doomed eventually.

Electricity company policy in our area (west Wales) is only to chop trees that are actually alive and could put on growth that would cause branches to touch the lines within the next year. They say they have no policy of felling any trees simply because they could in theory fall over on to electricity lines. If that happens they just come out and make repairs and switch on again.
The tree man said there are far too many ash trees for any pre-emptive felling.

With Ash trees 5% to 10% seem not to be affect by the disease so trees need to be left until it is seen whether they are dying. Also, it seems to only affect mature ash. This will change the woodland landscape in the UK but hopefully enough resistant trees will be left that the ash stand will recover in the future. This episode is yet another example of why we should not be importing saplings in from abroad yet I doubt we will ever learn this lesson. And no there is no plan about felling these dead trees or at least not in the Highlands.

Engineered products are the way forward, if one exists, IMO, for the majority of the UKs sparse widespread,( and by implication uneconomic ) distribution of it's tree cover.
The setting up of a centralised manufacturing facility, for example, to create an engineered PARALLAM beam type product could be possible, but the steady supply of raw material would need regionally centralised chipping facilities to enable a continuous bulk supply, but even so could still be uneconomic, the haulage figures may not stack up.
The UKs hedgerow, parkland, and free growing trees although aesthetically pleasing and often producing beautiful small scale furniture and craft wood, are mostly useless for solid, un-engineered, industrial timber processing purposes. We ravaged our forests long ago and they won't come back, except as "pretty" wildlife, and leisure sanctuaries, although nothing wrong with that.

Quite a number of years ago I heard someone suggesting re-foresting huge swathes of the Yorkshire Dales, Dartmoor, Exmoor and the like. The hue and cry it created from Poets, artists, and countryside lovers etc., was immense. The perceived loss of the wide ranging vistas was considered too high a price for the planting of serried rows of economic forestry.
With lowland flooding, and the creation of upland catchments very much a current topic, maybe we should have done the planting, and to hell with the vistas.

Posted By: fostertom
What happened there before, that kept the view clear, and what changed to allow this huge young forest to grow (it's not a plantation)?

I'm afraid I don't know the area so I can't help. However Ash and Sycamore are very good at self seeding so maybe the land has been re-designated from it's previous use, ( a re-wilding project? ).

What has been the result of timber price rises on pellets for boilers?. I had considered such a device but discounted it due to horror stories of servicing problems routine cleaning and having to load it in old age. As we ended up on bottled gas (900 kg of CO2 pa for those frowning) looking for justification I made the right choice. With announcement this last few days of gas and electricity price rise of 12% my gas is fixed for next 2 years at same price as last 2 years.

Sycamore is considered a weed by many folk probably because it germinates so well. A couple of years ago a neighbour asked me to cut down a sycamore growing in my hedge not even shared with him as it blocked his view, and as he stated "after all it was only a weed gone out of control". Sycamore is a much prized timber by woodworkers no wonder not much of it around if others were to adopt his attitude.