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Northern Forest: Plan To Plant 'ribbon Of Woodland' Across England

It isn't the Yobs that worry me, more the depredations of new pests, viruses, bacterial infections and fungi that are causing so much damage to our tree stock at the moment. It is currently as bad as it was during the very height of the spread of Durch elm disease but the media has more exciting things to report.
If the government comes good on its promises and has the foresight to use native, resistant varieties of trees then I may yet be able to walk coast to coast under a forest canopy...a dream come true.
I'm currently planting another batch of 1000 birch.
 
the Yobs DO worry me when TPTB put something like this on the news, its putting the idea in their heads.
the demise of Ash trees is something else I am concerned about but we don't it much around here, our local ash seems to be okay, touch wood!
 
The concern, however, is that we are rapidly losing our old woodlands. Planting new woods is not the answer to deforestation, the old ones need protecting also.
 
true but some of them need replacing, a lot of the old woods were chopped down and replaced by pine forests which were a cash crop.
 
Brownbear said:
The concern, however, is that we are rapidly losing our old woodlands. Planting new woods is not the answer to deforestation, the old ones need protecting also.
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I absolutely agree, it should be included in the overall project that the new woodlands tie into existing ancient woodlands and river valleys to form continuous wildlife corridors. Also there are wetlands and moorlands that need to be set aside from the forestation project even though they're man made.
 
lonewolf said:
true but some of them need replacing, a lot of the old woods were chopped down and replaced by pine forests which were a cash crop.
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And I fear that a "new" forest may have a similar hidden strategy. We need old species of tress not quick growing ones.
 
yeah they cut all the old trees down in a plantation near us and replaced them with eucalyptus, didn't do too good for the first few years, most of them died- didn't like the clay soil I think, but the survivors are doing okay now!
 
Many of the pine plantations were planted with a view to producing pit props. There is a current trend towards wilding, that simply means allowing whatever can survive there to move in but I support a semi-interventionist approach.
I like to plant a generation of deciduous nurse trees like birch to create the right environment for slower growing native deciduous hardwoods to come up through. The birch can then repeatedly be managed as copice while the mixed native hardwoods can be left as standards. This kind of underplanting is the ancient foresters method of creating a balance of good quality timber and enough firewood to satisfy the local needs.
 
lonewolf said:
yeah they cut all the old trees down in a plantation near us and replaced them with eucalyptus, didn't do too good for the first few years, most of them died- didn't like the clay soil I think, but the survivors are doing okay now!
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Eucalyptus?really?...that sounds like an obvious error...:rolleyes:
 
ystranc said:
Many of the pine plantations were planted with a view to producing pit props.
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I don't think this country has needed PIT props for a very long time.
the trouble with Pine is that nothing grows under it.
 
A lot of the plantations were started off in the 50's and 60's, pit props were still in demand at that time. Now they're no longer used in this way pines have been left unmanaged and unthinned meaning that huge areas of plantation are actually standing dead. The side branches were left on meaning the timber is knotty and of lower value...its just an epic story of lack of planning and mis managment by the forestry commission from inception right up til the 1990's
 
ystranc said:
It isn't the Yobs that worry me, more the depredations of new pests, viruses, bacterial infections and fungi that are causing so much damage to our tree stock at the moment. It is currently as bad as it was during the very height of the spread of Durch elm disease but the media has more exciting things to report.
If the government comes good on its promises and has the foresight to use native, resistant varieties of trees then I may yet be able to walk coast to coast under a forest canopy...a dream come true.
I'm currently planting another batch of 1000 birch.
Click to expand...
Excellent, well done.:thumbsup:
Keith.
 
ystranc said:
Eucalyptus?really?...that sounds like an obvious error...:rolleyes:
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I think quite a few overseas countries have planted Eucalyptus trees. They grow fast under normal conditions & will re shoot if cut down. They are also more drought resistant. Mountain Gum likes it wet.
Keith.
 
i'm not sure what variety these are, but initially there was a large amount of die off, some survived and those are the ones growing today.
 
ystranc said:
It isn't the Yobs that worry me, more the depredations of new pests, viruses, bacterial infections and fungi that are causing so much damage to our tree stock at the moment. It is currently as bad as it was during the very height of the spread of Durch elm disease but the media has more exciting things to report.
If the government comes good on its promises and has the foresight to use native, resistant varieties of trees then I may yet be able to walk coast to coast under a forest canopy...a dream come true.
I'm currently planting another batch of 1000 birch.
Click to expand...
Oh wow. And l was feeling smug 'cos l'm planting 50 hazel and some willow in the gaps between the mature sycamore that forms most of our "woods". (Really too small to be called woods, just a bit of the (large) garden that has trees.
 
we always called a small woods a copse, we had some on the farm I was going to run with my then father in law but unfortunately he died and the farm was resold.
 
A thousand birch will only cover about one hectare, it sounds more impressive then it is but the nice thing is that if its looked after as a coppice it could last for centuries, providing habitat and carbon neutral fuel.
 
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