got to say, i preferred this comment:

"Lets get some balance in this.

I'm not keen on the government selling off all of the nationally-owned woodland -- especially those in national parks and other places where public access is important. However, I own several woodlands which I manage sustainably so I know for a fact that many of the scenarios being painted are just not going to happen. The idea that private owners can asset-strip woodland leaving a field of stumps, or 'develop it' and displace the wildlife is just not true. So anyone who's tried to spread that myth; example, please.

No one is proposing disbanding the Forestry Commission or relinquishing the tight controls on development, or indeed how woodland is managed. If I want to fell trees for coppicing, replanting or any other accepted management practice I have to apply for licences. The licence requires me to replace any trees cut down with young trees of a specific type. The only people who can cut down large swathes of woodland are the bloody government when they want to put through a new motorway. It's the private woodland owners who invariably fight the planners -- not other government departments.

Finally, it's worth saying that grown wood when felled opens up the canopy and promotes growth of the understory and plants and flowers on the ground. The ecology then changes and varies as the trees then grow back. Felled wood used for timber locks up carbon in buildings, furniture and other objects made from it. Well-managed woodland maximises this mechanism of locking up most carbon. So if you buy a woodland off the Forestry Commission there is only one thing you can do with it practically to get a financial return -- grow more wood in it. And the better you manage it, the greater the return."

as i've said before i'll wait and see what the actual proposals are before getting my knickers in a twist over this

Posted By: Ralf Scrampton on December 22nd 2010 at 13:50:53

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