Sitka spruce

Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis) is native to the west coast of North America and was introduced into Great Britain in 1831. It has a comparatively high growth rate and can yield large amounts of timber within in a short space of time. It is now the main commercial species accounting for nearly a third of GB's woodland area and nearly half of all conifers.

Sitka spruce has a yield class of 14 meaning that a plantation can produce about 14 cubic metres per hectare per year. A typical timber frame house contains about 5 to 6 m³ of wood products within the structure. Looking at it another way, you could say that the 692 thousand hectares of Sitka spruce we have in GB grows enough wood fibre a year for a million new homes - that's one home every 30 seconds.

Not all of it goes into construction of course...in fact much less goes into construction than could do. UK-grown Sitka sawn timber readily grades to C16 which is perfectly adequate, even for constructing buildings of 8 storeys. Engineered wood products and massive wood construction allow for even more ambitious projects.

There are, however, challenges to overcome and that is why the SIRT project exists. Since its beginnings in 2004 we have been working hard to understand the Sitka spruce resource, the drivers behind wood properties, and the techniques required to predict the properties of wood in standing trees and felled logs. Our work aims to help the UK's forest and timber industries to improve the utilisation of UK-grown Sitka spruce, thereby creating a more competitive and sustainable forest products industry.