IFSOW Wageningen weekend
The IFSOW LC Wageningen hosted many cool activities in Wageningen from the weekend of 9 June until 11 June, together with international guests of other LCs. A sawmill excursion, campus tour, Wageningen walk, forest nursery excursion, and forest arboretum excursion were all included in the awesome weekend. Our guests were given an insight into the forestry sector of the Netherlands and the student life of a forestry student at the world’s second-best university in forestry, according to Edurank.
Before heading to the sawmill, our international guests were given a tour of the campus which started at the huge tree art in front of Forum, our main university building, which hosts all study associations, lecture halls, the university library, and a stunning view over the university-owned farms around Wageningen. We then walked over to our green campus to the forestry faculty, which is located in Lumen, a real gem with two greenhouse courtyards. We didn’t have much time to enjoy the beautiful gardens as it was quickly time to head for our next activity, the Sawmill excursion.
In the sawmill, insight was given into the Edese Zagerij. This local family business produces boards and beams from mainly Douglas fir sourced from local sources in the Veluwe, the Netherlands’ biggest nature reserve. We were taught everything about how the logs turn into wood ready for building. We even learned that Dutch Douglas is of much better quality than from other countries. The fibers are dense as the Douglas grows slowly in the Netherlands, and the wood quality improves. The Edese Zagerij is the first sawmill with a system to manage solar power and machine capacity in combination with a battery solar power storage system, which makes the sawmill almost energy neutral. This system will power the new Slovenian-built Mebor HTZ 1200 Extreme sawline. A horizontal bandsaw that can cut trees in any direction is mainly designed for big logs, and the variable speed adjustment makes it possible to cut any type of wood. As hardwood needs a slower saw speed and finer teeth, it’s impossible to cut this type of wood with the current saw line.
In the evening, we gathered to eat at a really interesting restaurant where refugees cook meals, and you can eat restaurant-quality food on a donation basis. Together with all participants, we enjoyed the Iranian cuisine served.
The next day, on Saturday, we gathered at the great church of Wageningen to go sightseeing around and in the Wageningen center and for a walk over the dike with views over the nature in the Uiterwaarden to the most beautiful arboretum of Wageningen, arboretum de Drijen. We even passed the exact place where the German forces capitulated on the 5th of May 1945. A day that is still celebrated in the Netherlands.
In the afternoon, we went for a long ride through Belgium to one of the most extensive forest plantation nurseries in the Netherlands. The nursery Lodders Boomkwekerijen, part of NL Plants, exports high-quality forestry saplings worldwide, mainly to West- and Eastern Europe but also to Africa. We were hosted by Marc Lodders, the nursery owner, who explained all the ins and outs of the 100-ha big nursery. We learned how the trees are planted, cut and replanted, harvested, stored, sorted, and transported. We also learned about fertilization, challenges, and ongoing research on the nursery about different provenances and the effect of sweet chestnut blight and ash dieback in different provenances led by Wageningen University and research. The most surprising to hear was that the war in Russia caused the nursery not to make a profit this year, as normally Eastern European nurseries export a lot of their products to Russia, there is a bigger demand from Eastern Europe for Western-Europe grown saplings, but with the export to Russia stagnating, there is no demand from Eastern Europe, thereby a lot of saplings wait without buyers in the coolers. This is the time to buy your future forest trees!
On the last day, we were shown through the forest arboretum by Leo Goudzwaardt. Seeing the collections and research plots combined into a biodiverse forest was amazing. A perfect ending to the Wageningen weekend! See you guys next year!
Written by: Gerrit Noeverman ~ President of IFSOW LC Wageningen
Take a look at our photos below!
