What is civil engineering?

Not many people know much about civil engineers and what they do. They might know that they build bridges and tall buildings but they rarely appreciate exactly how much our lives - and civilisation itself - depends on civil engineering. Much of it we think about - either because we can't see it, or because it works so well we take it for granted.

At the most basic level civil engineering is about providing people with clean water, shelter and sanitation. These things are fundamental to human life and arguably civil engineers have saved more lives than the medical profession.

...but it's more than just that. Civil engineering covers a huge array of disciplines as this video from the Institution of Civil Engineers shows.



You might be thinking, "but what has this got to do with timber?" Well quite a lot as it happens. Timber is one of the few renewable building materials and it becoming increasingly important for larger construction projects as well as for building homes. For this reason, civil engineering degrees are now more likely to include timber as well as steel and concrete (especially the courses we run at Napier). But civil engineering is also needed to create and maintain forests, to prepare the ground, ensure the right amount of water in the soil, and to provide access roads and bridges. In fact, if you've not watched the firrs DVD, you might be surprised to learn that the Forestry Commission employs civil engineers.

why wood : what wood

Last week I gave a presentation it the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining in London, which was part of their Materials and Design Exchange (MADE). This was intended as an introduction to wood as a material and used some of the videos made for the firrs project. You can download a pdf copy of my presentation, with a few notes on what I said, here.

Social science

As well as the natural sciences, like biology, chemistry and physics, forestry involves the social sciences - the study of human behaviour and society. Forests provide many important benefits to people and communities.

Social forestry is the study of things like:

• How people interact with forests
• How foresters can improve engagement with local communities
• How forests support employment and rural economies
• How forests contribute to health and wellbeing

As a public body, the Forestry Commission has been particularly active in this area, but private forestry companies also make use of social forestry.

Forestry, timber and climate change

Forests and climate change are very closely linked, but in ways that are not generally well understood by the public. The science is complex and interconnected and often you hear only one side of the story. Fortunately the Forestry Commission has recently released a video that covers the subject in a very clear and balanced way. It also tackles a few widely believed myths too. I challenge you to watch it and see if it doesn't tell you something that surprises you.

The reality is that human impact on forests is both a problem and a solution - and that we need science to tell us what the consequences of our actions are. If you are thinking of a science or engineering based career that helps save the planet you couldn't do much better than working in the forestry and timber.

Forests are vast sinks of the greenhouse gas CO2 but they offer so much more - from renewable energy to low carbon building materials...just so long as they are sustainably managed. The challenge for foresters is to use science to understand both the effect of forestry on climate change ...and the effect of climate change on forestry.

You can download a high quality copy of the video at the Forestry Commission's website: http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/INFD-6umkar

Virtual forest tour

UPM's Forest Life is a really beautiful combination of Flash, still photography, video and audio. It takes you on a tour of a Finnish forest looking at trees, plants, animals and people. Find out about how forests are managed sustainably for different purposes and how there is much more to a forest than just the trees.

Careers in the timber industry

The UK's multipurpose forests provide environmentally friendly materials for all sorts of things and there are a vast array of different types of job out there.

For more information on jobs visit The Doorway and A Job In.

Chainsaw impersonation

Unbelievable but real...the Australian lyre bird can sing like a forester.

National tree week

"National tree week" starts today and runs until the 2nd of December. The Tree Council has organised several events around the UK celebrating trees and planting new ones.

If you want to know how to identify some of the trees that grow in the UK from their leaves you can play Kerf's leaf quiz on the main firrs website. There are more identification guides over at the Woodland Trust's Nature Detectives.

Tree planting is a great team building and feelgood activity to do in schools...and it goes on all over the world. This is a video made by a school in Costa Rica.



Trees can be planted as seeds, as small saplings, or as young trees several metres tall. Remember, although larger trees give instant satisfaction they also weigh more. It's also good to have a bit of expert advice to make sure the trees thrive and you know how to look after them.

You can still join in even if you don't have much outdoor space ....you can plant a tree as a bonsai.

Deforestation and certification

This video from Greenpeace has a forceful message. It asks the question:

"Why destroy ancient forests for wood and paper, when it can all come from responsibly logged timber?"

Why indeed.

Well one reason this happens is that many people don't really understand how they can choose wood products that are environmentally sustainable - and come from properly managed forests. There is good wood and bad wood and we all need to understand the difference. Check out the certification schemes like FSC and look for the logos. Buying certified wood is a good thing...it encourages people to look after their forests.

The story of a forest ranger

This is another film from the excellent Prelinger Archive. This one was made in 1954 and looks at the job of the forest ranger in the USA. Again, you might recognise parts we used for our own videos.

Notice how the forests are talked about as a resource...but also how emphasis is placed on sustainable forestry and protection of the environment...even back in the 50s! Notice also how they stress the importance of avoiding forest fires. Back then many people smoked and lots of fires were started accidentally. Forest fires are still a big issue...all over the world (the UK included).

Wood for war - wood for peace

Ironically, the fact that we now have so many well managed forests in the UK is down, in part, to two of the most destructive events of the 20th Century: the two world wars.

During the First World War (1914 to 1918) Britain had great difficulty meeting the demands on timber - particularly for coal production and trench warfare. Britain's forests had been on the decline since medieval times and had been put under enormous pressure by the industrial revolution. Timber had been imported in large quantities for hundreds of years, but the war meant this supply was no longer reliable.

In 1919 the Forestry Commission was created and charged with reforesting the country with the help of private foresters. The idea was to improve the productivity of the forests and to create a large reserve of wood that could be called on in times of emergency.

Such a time came only a couple of decades later with the Second World War (1939-1945). During the war, the Commission's forests produced nearly one and a half million cubic meters of wood and nearly ten times more came from private estates.

These were times of great social change too. The 'lumberjills' were the forestry equivalent of the land army girls, but they weren't just felling trees - they were planting too...and the forests have been growing in size ever since.

Over the last 40 years or so the Forestry Commission has included conservation, ecology, recreation and tourism within it's objectives...and that's why we have today's multipurpose forests.

This is a video from the Prelinger Archive that was made during the Second World War looking at the same things from the American perspective. You might recognise parts we used in our videos.

Mountain biking

Have you watched our videos about Forestry Civil Engineering? Well this is one of the benefits of the work they do - mountain biking trails! Forests are very important to recreation, heath and tourism as well as being 'factories' for growing wood. If you live in Scotland check out 7stanes.

Wood and the environment

Today is "blog action day" so a good time to look at how the forest and timber industries impact on the environment.

Is using wood good or bad for the environment?

Well the answer is that it can be both...at the moment.

OK, environmental issues are complicated so I'm afraid your going to have to concentrate while I try and explain this.

We all use wood products in our daily lives...and so it is very important that everyone understands this: there is good wood and there is bad wood.

Let's start with bad wood. Thankfully most people these days are aware that forests are being destroyed in some areas of the world. Some of this is because of logging for timber and some of it is because land is being cleared for other uses. This is a bad thing...for all sorts of reasons. As well as being the "lungs of the planet" forests provide homes to lots of animals and plants...and people too. Deforestation contributes to climate change and can also lead to landslides and floods. We hear a lot about the rain forests in South America, Africa and Asia, but forests are threatened in other areas as well...including Europe. Bad wood is wood that comes from:

• Forests that are logged faster than they can regrow



• Old growth forests, which contain important and rare habitats and which can't recover from logging



• Forests that provide homes to endangered plants and animals



• Logging that is linked to crime and poor treatment of native people



• Logging that causes pollution or damage to the land

Buying bad wood is like buying a panda fur coat...and you wouldn't do that would you?

Now let's look at good wood. Wood is one of the few truly renewable materials we have. If we are careful about how we manage forests we can grow new wood to replace the wood we use. So long as forests are managed carefully they can provide wood forever. Indeed, thanks to responsible forestry for wood, the UK has more forests now than it had 100 years ago...and the forests are still growing.

Also, as trees grow they take carbon dioxide out of the air helping to combat climate change. When that wood is used to make products like furniture and houses the carbon is stored away and doesn't get back into the atmosphere until the wood product decays or is burnt...and that might be decades or even centuries. What's more is that we can make things out of wood that we would otherwise have to make from materials that cause environmental problems when they are made - like metals, concrete and plastics.

Forests can be factories for producing wood...and also provide lots of other good things too like homes for wildlife and nice places to go and exercise in.

So how can you know what's good wood and what's bad wood? Well, this is something that has been given a lot of thought in the last few years. There are now several "certification schemes" which aim to identify good wood. One of the best known is the Forest Stewardship Council (or FSC) which is supported by environmental organisations like Greenpeace, WWF and Friends of the Earth. You can find more information here and here. There is also an excellent virtual tour of a Finnish Forest explaining some of what is involved in sustainable forestry. And you can also learn a little more about the sustainability of different species by playing our timber trumps game.

Buying certified wood is a good thing...it encourages people to look after their forests. So look out for the certification marks.