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Margaret Mead, American anthropologist, 1901-1978
 


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Category: Wildlife Habitat: Tree Planting

  1. New Northern Forest to be planted in the UK

    Posted on

    In January 2018, the UK Government kicked off the year by backing a project to create a new Northern Forest.  

    The Government will provide £5.7 million to increase tree cover in this area.  The project will cost £500m over 25 years, and the balance will be raised by charity. 

    The Woodland Trust is leading the scheme with local Community Forests. 

    The project will see 50 million trees over 25 years.  They will stretch from Liverpool right over to Hull, embracing the major cities of Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Chester and Hull alongside other major towns along the M62 corridor. 


    Shared from New World 360


    According to the Woodland Trust, benefits of this new forest include:

    • Improving air quality in towns and cities
    • Mitigating flood risk in key catchments
    • Supporting the rural economy through tourism, recreation and timber production
    • Connecting people with nature
    • Helping to delivery better health and wellbeing for people by providing access to green spaces
    • Providing a rich habitat for wildlife to thrive

    Woodland cover is at just 7.6% there, below the UK average of 13%.  The EU has an average of 44%. 

    Tree planting rates are very low with there being only 700 hectares against the Government’s target of 5,000 hectares a year, so this project should help.

    However, while it is one thing to create new forest, it is another to destroy ancient woodland which the Government is hell bent on, in part to create room for this ridiculous and incredibly expensive HS2 railway.  

    If this Government really cared about forests and woodlands, it would stop destroying ancient woodland and stop routing the high-speed train route through them.  

    Five Community Forests that sit within the proposed areas for the Northern Forest – you can find out more about the Community Forests here. 

     

     

  2. More woodland in England in Northumberland

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    So over 600,000 trees are to be planted at Doddington North Moor in Northumberland in the UK.

    The scheme will be the largest woodland creation scheme in England in the last 30 years.  The Forestry Commission gave it a thumbs up, and it expects it to generate jobs.


    The trees will include broadleaf and conifer trees and they should cover 350 hectares (i.e. the same space as 650 football pitches would take up).

    Environmentally, it should:

    • Boost red squirrel numbers, currently estimated to be 140,000 (compared with 2.5 million grey squirrels)
    • Store 120,000 tonnes of carbon
    • Manage flood risks

    The scheme has been developed with the help of Government funding.  It will receie grants for planting.  Environment minister Therese Coffey said: "Our forests and woodlands are some of our most vital and cherished natural assets, and planting more trees is at the heart of our ambition to protect the environment for future generations.

    "Doddington North Moor will make a significant contribution to our drive to plant 11 million trees across the nation and is a fantastic example of the kind of tree-planting schemes we want to see more of.

    The Conservatives pledged to plant 11 million trees in five years, a pledge upheld in their 2015.  Unfortunately, what they propose to plant with one hand, they will destroy in the name of "progress" with the other - the HS2 railway being an example.

    The scheme is expected to begin in March 2018 and take two to three years to complete.

    Meantime in India, 66 million saplings were planted by volunteers in just 12 hours in a record-breaking environmental drive.

    School report?  England could and must do better.

     

  3. Trees for Life keep planting trees in Scotland :-)

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    Today, I had an email from the amazing Trees for Life who are based in Scotland.

    Nine years ago, they bought an estate – the Dundreggan Conservation Estate.  


    And today’s news is that at the end of this autumn’s planting season, they will have planted 176,965 trees in the Allt Ruadh exclosure at our Dundreggan Conservation Estate.  This means, they say, that any day now, they will surpass 500,000 total trees planted on the estate since they bought it nine years ago.

    Their Rewilding the Highlands project proposes to deliver an inspiring example of rewilding in the UK.  It is significantly expanding and enhancing the native Caledonian forest habitats on the Dundreggan Conservation Estate, while helping others to begin their own forest restoration initiatives.  It wants to develop the area into one of Scotland’s finest native woodlands, full of wildlife, for generations to come.  Over 3,000 species have been discovered. This will enable opportunities for wildlife watching to grow, fantastic for anyone who loves the outdoors. 

    You can help by sponsoring an acre, becoming a friend of Dundreggan or even volunteering!  Find out more here