Unlocking value from crown timber through smarter design and harvesting technologies
European forests generate large amounts of low-quality wood in the form of small‑diameter logs, thinnings, irregular stems, and crown wood representing 20–50% of tree biomass. Much of this material is currently left in the forest or reduced to low‑value biomass, resulting in lost revenue and waste. WoodStock explores practical strategies and technologies to help foresters and small processors turn these overlooked resources into valuable construction products.
The report Review of zero-waste building concepts shows that low‑quality wood can be successfully used in long‑lasting construction when buildings are designed to fit the material rather than reducing a design to the capabilities of standardised timber. Case studies using crown timber show that designing structural systems around naturally curved forms can produce efficient and robust construction solutions. By incorporating technologies such as LiDAR, computer vision, GIS and AI to map crown volumes, detect defects, and classify species or geometries, many projects were able to integrate low‑quality wood into structural applications. A critical technology gap remains: no machinery is currently capable of efficiently pruning or harvesting crown wood prior to felling, severely limiting access to one of the largest untapped wood resources.
Crown wood offers a promising new commercial category for foresters, especially as many regions shift toward more branch‑rich species under climate stress. To unlock this potential, new pruning and harvesting tools and continued research into mechanised crown retrieval are needed. Innovative designs that use this material have proven successful, but they remain mostly confined to small‑scale research settings. Nevertheless, irregular wood frames, roundwood components and other semi‑processed elements present flexible, locally produced alternatives with strong potential for wider adoption in the construction sector, creating new revenue opportunities along the value chain.
Additional information
These approaches offer several clear benefits for foresters, arborists, sawyers and others along the value chain. Benefits which include higher income per harvested tree and per hectare, reduced forest and sawmill waste, better utilisation of climate‑resilient hardwoods, stronger local value chains, all of which support new supply streams based on underutilised wood resources. The main costs are organisational - such as sorting, coordinating with designers, and providing basic storage - alongside future investment needed to develop and deploy specialised pruning and crown‑harvesting equipment. The key message is that there is value in currently perceived low-quality wood sources.
WoodStock - Empowering climate-smart, circular, and zero-waste use of underutilised wood in the European construction sector to support the New European Bauhaus
Ongoing | 2024-2028
- Main funding source
- Horizon Europe (EU Research and Innovation Programme)
- Geographical location
- Belgium, Slovenia, France, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Finland
Project Keywords
- Circular economy, incl. waste, by-products and residues
- Climate change (incl. GHG reduction, adaptation and mitigation, and other air related issues)
- Competitiveness/new business models
- Digitalisation, incl. data and data technologies
- Forestry
- Social innovation
- Supply chain, marketing and consumption
- Biodiversity and nature
- Landscape/land management