A WOMAN has been handed a woodland challenge.

Claire Hoyles has joined the White Rose Forest Partnership as Wood Energy Co-ordinator for West Yorkshire.

She will be promoting the use of woodfuel boilers and helping to establish a viable wood energy supply by encouraging the sustainable management of council-owned and private woodland.

Similar schemes are already running in South Yorkshire and North Yorkshire as part of the Wood Fuel Infrastructure Programme being delivered by CO2Sense Yorkshire, a not-for-profit subsidiary of Yorkshire Forward, the regional development agency.

The Woodfuel Infrastructure Programme, launched in March 2009, aims to encourage the sustainable management of woodland, increase the amount of woodfuel available and further develop the market for woodfuel, thereby improving consumer confidence in fuel availability.

Claire will be looking for organisations that need help to purchase processing, storage or transport equipment for the production and sale of woodchip and wood pellet fuels.

She said: “Woodfuel offers a real sustainable source of renewable energy from our woodlands and it is time to make the most of this opportunity and get our woodlands into management.”