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The North Yorkshire Timber Freight Quality Partnership provides a map of timber transport routes in the county.
The freight quality partnership brings together representatives of the council, the Forestry Commission, the timber and forestry industries and haulage interests.
You can view the timber map via the button below.
Timber felling and transport (timber extraction) is becoming a significant part of the rural economy of North Yorkshire. There are over 40,000 hectares of woodland in North Yorkshire, with in the region of 200,000 tonnes of timber being extracted annually across the county. The timber industry supports in the region of 2,000 jobs in the county.
The majority of forests are located away from the main A and B class roads and are accessed via smaller rural roads. Most timber extraction passes without incident. However in some instances there is the potential for some disruption to local communities and the highway network.
In order to try and address these issues, the North Yorkshire Timber Freight Quality Partnership was established. This group is made up of a range of key stakeholders including representation from the timber industry, North Yorkshire Council and both national parks.
The aim of the partnership is to support the contribution of the forestry and timber industries to the North Yorkshire economy by ensuring that timber industries can access the timber resource whilst seeking to minimise the impact on the public road network, on local communities and on the environment. You can find more information on the North Yorkshire Timber Freight Quality Partnership here.
The freight quality partnership has developed a North Yorkshire timber routes map. This map identifies forest exit points where timber vehicles will enter the county road network, the estimated number of round trips per day from each forest exit point and the route the timber will take from the forest to the A and B road network.
The routes map contains data on the predicted average number of round trips per day (lorries) from each forest exit point. Each round trip involves an empty vehicle arriving at forest and a full vehicle leaving the forest.
By clicking on a tree icon on the routes map, information related to that forest exit point is displayed. This includes an indication of the number of round trips from this exit point when extraction is planned to happen. This is categorised as one of the four following options:
These figures relate to movements when extraction is happening. It does not mean that there will be vehicle movements every day of the year. When extraction occurs it is typically on weekdays. This is a predicted average figure and is subject to some variation. It should be noted that only a small minority of forests are categorised as heavy flows.
Timber extraction routes have been developed by the freight quality partnership working closely with local highways area offices. Routes have been categorised and are displayed on the map as per the following:
Many of the routes on the map are either currently being used or have been used in the past. The map helps to ensure that all parties have as much knowledge as possible about likely flows and what routes will be used over the next few years.
Due to variations in the timber market, production plans and road conditions the map can never be a fully accurate plan of what timber will be extracted. It does however provide a very useful guide to inform local communities about what timber extraction operations will be taking place in their area and also provides the industry with information on which routes they can use.