New Forests

[coln18]

by the way guys, anyone wanting to make a difference with trees,

there is a charity called trees for life that plant thousands of native trees each year, they are even introducing wild boar and other animals, their main aim is to try to restore parts of the ancienct caledonian forest..

www.treesforlife.org.uk

why doesnt everyone on here join and donate to get a few trees planted, and if you have more time they do work weeks where you can make a difference on ground...


All the best Col....

 

[TallMikeM]

nature will do fine on her own. However, this isn't being done for nature's benefit; it's being done for ours. And if we want to continue to enjoy these "wild" places then we need to manage them.

 

[calibanzwei]

Will we be able to utilise this wonderful new resource??

Wouldn't plan on hanging your hammock for a good 10-12 years

 

[gregorach]

i just believe that if you leave nature alone, she will do fine by herself, she always adapts to changes (changes that may not suit us) if the squirrels and deer and every other creature damages 1 million trees, then let them be and plant 10 million trees.....

Col....

Look, I don't want to be awkward or anything, but isn't there a slight conflict between "leave nature alone" and "plant 10 million trees"? Reminds me of the time Linda McCartney said we should stop interfering with nature by culling deer, and that we should feed them instead...

Anything we do could be classed as "interference".

 

[calibanzwei]

Nature will obviously take back unused land via natural succession, but nothing wrong with a helping hand - a helping hand which in most cases reverses the damage done by modern living.

 

[coln18]

yes i agree, management is needed, but it depends on what level.

up here in loch lomond, there is an island that was populated with wallabies 50 years or so ago by us humans, now they want to cull them all , using the excuse that the trees cant regenerate with the wallabies there, funny ive been on that island dozens of times and you cant move for trees, nature has adapted to these creatures,

i agree with management as long as it is real and not an excuse for a turkey shoot, surely there is room for us all.....

 

[TallMikeM]

technically we can't leave nature alone, we are part of nature and anything we do is part of the natural cycle.

 

[calibanzwei]

......something about scientific process....being unable to be objective when we, as the observer are part of the equation? CSI is to blame methinks.

 

[coln18]

fair call, tallmikem,

we are part of nature, and everything we do has an impact, i just believe in positive impacts, we all have our own belief structure
- mine is just to see nature flourish the way it should. Maybe the trees should be planted for natures benefit and not ours TallMikeM

 

[locum76]

This is good news. lets hope they apply some nifty design to it, we could have a canopy layer of oak interplanted with hazel and birch. the margins could be hawthorn and blackthorn, the ground layer or forest floor planted with fruit bushes (such as blaeberries) and flowers in guilds. There should be beehives in there too.

Then obvioulsy there would be a natural population boom of squirrels and pidgeons in such a bountiful system, but wouldn't they be lovely with a nice sloe jus or stuffed with hazelnuts?

who said something about forests taking the place of food growing space?

Of course they'll probably just plant spruce in nice neat rows.

 

[coln18]

wouldnt it be great if the government gave tax breaks to land owners who gave their land over to native woodland, then i bet you we would have more than 4% extra woodland.

(p.s i hope they dont already do this or i will look stupid wont i!!!!)

 

[locum76]

Farmers can get grants for planting native species and promoting biodiversity. No tax breaks though.

 

[coln18]

the issue of grabbing back farming/housing land shouldnt be a problem, as anyone who has been to Scotland will tell you 90% of the population lives in a small area, there is area a plenty to replant native caledonain forest - what a beautiful scene that would be

go on, take a leap everyone and this weekend go plant a native tree somewhere suitable (with the land owners permission- of course)

 

[VirusKiller]

On Countryfile last Sunday, they were talking about a new (goverment driven) scheme to encourage burning wood by re-managing woodland that has fallen out of management. They reckon 250,000 homes could do it. I'm not saying that this is bad, but it will be interesting to see how this squares with the (government driven) "lock up the carbon" initiative.

 

[TallMikeM]

wouldnt it be great if the government gave tax breaks to land owners who gave their land over to native woodland, then i bet you we would have more than 4% extra woodland.

(p.s i hope they dont already do this or i will look stupid wont i!!!!)

under schemes like the single farm payment, countryside stewardship scheme and so on landowners get subsidies based (in part) on how diverse a range of habitats they have on their land (not just woodlands, also unimproved meadow/pasture, hedgerows etc. Woodlands are not the only important habitat in the UK). The reason why most farmers don't pl;ant extensiev woodlands is that wheat is still a highly profitable crop, and they get more per acre fro wheat than they get in subsidies.

My concern about this scheme is where are they gonna plant these woods. In herts, they're planning a big woodland near St Albans. The general area where it's planned is a lovely mix of meadows, pastures, arable and hedgerows. These are, in many ways, more important from a bio diversity point of view than climax woodland. I hope they don't "throw the baby out with the bathwater" just because they want to plant trees. Now, I don't know exactly where they plan to plant this woodland, so I hope they leave the patchwork of meadows and pastures alone (there's a sodding great golf course near there they could plant on instead).

 

[Grooveski]

I think it's great news.
They'll likely base a fair percentage of what they plan to spend on funding some of the initiatives that are already in place which would be good news for the caledon forest. The more the merrier, even if I never see it.

Maybe shift some of the FC plantations.
I come across as being anti FC sometimes but I'm not, I've just grown up around folk who start sentences with "Before the forestry it was....".
There's no doubt they know how to plant trees though. I'm sure they'll play a part. Imagine if they nurtured a stand of scotch pine at the right height around each of their plantations and simply didn't crop them...

As folk have said there's plenty of room up this way for the right sort of planting.
The wallaby factor I'm not so sold on. Inchconnachan always has a cleaned-out feel. the trees are old, the blaeaberry bushes are lower than deer level and it's the only place I've ever seen soft rush stumps. Those big bunnies have it hard out there I think, they're competing with the deer to start with.

 

[bushwacker bob]

http://www.nationalforest.org/woodlandcreation/cls/