Calendar

Brook Farm and Bryn Arw.A joint visit with Herefordshire Division. The morning visit to Brook Farm will look at commercial woodland creation. In the afternoon, we will visit Bryn Arw to compare this with community-led projects.

The first few years of life can be critical to establishing a healthy tree. If you're planning to plant new woodland, join the Forestry Commission for this practical session aimed at landowners and land managers. Speakers will include Woodland Resilience Advisor, Chris Watson, who'll discuss how to give your trees the best start in life and landowner Martin Hole, from Montague Farm, who'll share his experience of establishing woodland in East Sussex.

Hosted by Woodknowledge Wales, the Timber 101 series explores the properties, performance, and specification of timber across the supply chain.

This session offers a hands-on introduction to wood as a natural resource and highlights its essential physical and mechanical characteristics.

We will cover:
• Variability in appearance, grain, texture and figure
• Density and its impact on performance
• Juvenile wood and reaction wood – and how to recognise them
• Corrosive interactions and chemical behaviour
• How timber behaves structurally and what this means in design

This session is ideal for specifiers and designers who need a better understanding of how wood’s material properties affect its use in construction.

The Timber 101 webinar series from Woodknowledge Wales is a great opportunity for foresters interested in gaining deeper insight into the materials they supply, and for designers to achieve a better understanding as to how the materials that they specify, behave in various conditions.

Understanding moisture levels is crucial to the functionality of timber, but it’s frequently overlooked. In this session, we will define ‘moisture in timber’ and discuss methods for evaluating and handling it effectively.

We will cover:
•    Green vs seasoned timber – how and why moisture content changes
•    Timber drying methods and moisture testing
•    Shrinkage and movement in service
•    Storage and transport considerations

Understanding how timber interacts with moisture is key to ensuring long-term performance and avoiding structural or aesthetic failures.

If you’re just starting to explore timber or want to deepen your understanding, the Timber 101 series from Woodknowledge Wales offers straightforward, fact-based guidance to help you make informed choices. 

This second session on moisture, explores advanced techniques for managing movement and moisture in design and specification.

Attendees will learn about:
•    Swelling and shrinkage behaviour in different grain orientations
•    Movement classifications and use classes
•    Accommodating movement in timber elements in buildings
•    Why moisture variation causes problems – and how to reduce risk

This technical session is suited to those specifying structural or exposed timber, or responsible for detailing timber components in buildings.

Discover the essential knowledge about timber that designers, housing developers, and forestry experts rely on for success through the Timber 101 series from Woodknowledge Wales.

The ability of timber to last over time is an essential factor in its performance. This session explores the natural resistance of various species and provides guidance for making appropriate selections.

You will learn about:
• Durability classifications and service life expectations
• Which species perform well outdoors or in exposed conditions
• When and how to specify wood preservatives
• The difference between natural durability and treated performance

This session will be useful for anyone specifying timber in external or high-risk applications.

When we talk about ‘quality’ timber, what are we really saying? The last session of the Timber 101 2026 series breaks down terminology that is often misunderstood and looks into how different perspectives shape views on timber quality.

We will cover:
•    The range of timber defects – and which ones matter
•    How and when to grade timber
•    Confusion around visual vs structural quality
•    What architects, sawmillers and foresters each mean by ‘good timber’

By clarifying the differences in how quality is defined and understood, this session will help reduce over-specification, waste and missed value opportunities in timber supply chains.