A FERRY that used to take passengers to Greek islands should provide relief from a headache long suffered by the Scottish timber industry - getting wood to market from remote areas without proper roads.
The 750-tonne vessel, which used to ply the waters of the Ionian Sea around Corfu carrying tourists and locals to the islands, has been refitted and renamed Red Princess to fill a new role in the booming forestry sector.
Paul Wheelhouse, the environment and climate change minister, launched a pilot project in Troon that will use the Red Princess.
The Scottish Government's Strategic Timber Transport Scheme (STTS) is supporting the pilot, which involves building timber storage areas and temporary "bunds" (embankment/quaysides) at five forest locations in Argyll and Arran. The bunds will allow Red Princess's ramp to access the shoreline whatever the tide conditions.
The sites are a Forestry Commission Scotland site at Sannox on the east coast of Arran and four private woodlands, three of them managed by forestry and harvesting company UPM Tilhill. The private sites are all in Argyll - at Loch Feachan, Ardoran (south of Oban), Loch Goil, Carrick and sites at Loch Striven on the Cowal peninsula.
The STTS is contributing £217,000 to the pilot (50 per cent of the cost of building the bunds and storage areas), which is expected to transport 118,500 tonnes of timber from the five sites over two years
The Troon Tug Company has invested £1.3 million in Red Princess, which can access the shoreline of remote coasts and sea lochs. It will deliver the logs for use in construction and fencing to the harbour at Troon, next to Adam Wilson & Sons sawmill and a short drive from UPM's Caledonian Paper mill and biomass plant.
Mr Wheelhouse said: "Red Princess will enable around another 60,000 tonnes of timber to reach Ayrshire's wood processing sector each year. Across Scotland we have seen record harvesting levels, and with timber availability set to increase, this project demonstrates an innovative solution to managing timber transport."
Gavin Brown, Highland Regional Manager at UPM Tilhill, said: "The forests in question are geographically remote where the use or construction of roads is impractical, uneconomic or both - and the sites do not have sufficient volume to justify a more permanent solution such as a fixed or floating pier."
Stuart Goodall, chief executive of Confor, which represents almost 2000 forest and wood-using businesses, said: "If this timber wasn't harvested, it would simply blow down over time, which is bad for wildlife, bad for the Scottish economy and leads to lost income to the woodland owner."
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