A 20-year Forest Management Plan agreed with the FCS covers our 1372 ha of commercial forestry and 262 ha of native pinewood. Ballogie Estate Enterprises produce timber certified under UKWAS.
Much of the forest area is being converted to continuous cover mixed species and mixed age forestry relying on natural regeneration from mature seed trees, leaving the traditional British system of clear fell and replant to only the most productive sites on good soils. Some small-scale amenity planting of broadleaves takes place. The tree species comprise mainly Scots Pine, other conifers, mixed broadleaves and birch, which is of very good quality generally. About a fifth of the woodland is around 70 years old, about quarter at the thicket stage, a small percentage at establishment stage and the rest at pole stage. The policy woodlands are dominated by older trees and broadleaves and these along with riparian woodlands and birch woods, provide diverse woodland habitats.
Ballogie Estate Enterprises is a major contributor of timber to Deeside Woodland Products (Marketing & Harvesting Co-operative), which coordinates marketing over 9500ha of forestry and is a key local producer of all timber products from quality saw logs to biomass renewable fuel.
Established in 1987, DWP is Scotland’s only fully independent co-operative timber marketing group. This group was formed out of a collaboration of interested parties to provide a joint harvesting initiative, the founder members of which were Ballogie Estate and Kincardine Estate but now includes other local estates.
