WOODCHIPPERS BREAK TRUCK RECORD

The 2004 woodchipping year ended in full flight, with record numbers of trucks delivering loads to the Eden chipmill.
Conservationists monitoring truck movements for the final three days of the industry year, reported higher truck numbers than ever recorded in recent years.
Truck numbers recorded averaged 163 per day. The previous average trucks per day was 130.
The previous highest recorded tally for a single day during a woodchip vigil was 146, although it is possible there have been busier days when no monitoring was done.
As well as the high numbers of trucks, the survey results showed that a higher proportion (almost 75%) of loads contained large, mature trees and a smaller proportion (less than 10 %) were residue from sawmills.
Both of these findings are in direct conflict with industry and Government claims.
One serious finding is the high number of split logs on trucks. Company spokesmen often state that the mill no longer needs to split logs. They claim this as "evidence" that large old trees are no longer  used by the woodchippers.
Evidence gathered during the survey shows that the chipmill still uses a high proportion of enormous logs, but they are now split before trucking, not at the mill.


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