Dust flies during successful sawmill training at RHS Rosemoor

Training on a new mobile sawmill to help North Devon landowners manage their woodlands has been held at RHS Garden Rosemoor.

The new Norwood HD38 Lumbermax Sawmill, which can take trees with a trunk of up to almost a metre, has been purchased by North Devon Biosphere thanks to a grant from the Rural England Prosperity Fund via North Devon Plus.

The plan is for the sawmill to be available to landowners across the region to manage their woodlands more productively, as it can produce big planks of high value wood.

The sawmill training at Rosemoor was delivered by Andy Dudley from Global Machinery Solutions, who came down from Newark to support the project, having been hugely helpful in securing the sawmill through the grants process.

Whilst the sawmill was somewhat tricky to set up, once in place it handles huge trees easily (maximum 95cm diameter) and with a hydraulic lifting device it is able to be used by a variety of people.

There is plenty of work for the sawmill in the coming months across the woodland managed by the Biosphere team, but any landowners who are interested in finding out more about hiring the sawmill are invited to email naturalcapital@devon.gov.uk for more information.