Saving British Woodland to Save the Rain Forest

There was a time when almost the whole of Britain was covered by trees, making a woodland that stretched from the south coast of England to the northern tip of Scotland. That long ago was cleared to create the fields and landscape that we have today. However while there is a reasonably healthy level of woodland cover in Britain today, there have been times when the forests were cleared and after the second world war, the tree cover was less than forty percent of the trees we have today.

My local forest, Chopwell Wood, the tree loss was eighty percent of the trees we have today. That is after the recent felling too so the trees that were cut down during the war, for timber, left the wood a sight of desolation.

The need for lumber will always mean that there is a demand for timber and growing trees. Locally in the region the mining industry meant that many trees were planted and we have the coal industry to thank for the forests that cover the region. The timber was needed to make Pit Props, just as in the past it was the Royal Navy needing timber for ships that kept forests planted.

Quite simply it has always been the human demand for timber that has kept forests as a part of our landscape. Less than fifty miles north of my village, at Kielder, after the Second world war a whole new forest was planted and it is now the largest single forest in England.

It is only in recent years that within Kielder Forest that Forestry Commission (FC) has started to remove the trees from some of the rare habitats to preserve them, rather than trying to grow timber on the peat bogs and the upland marshes that are part of the Northumberland Landscape. As any gardener will tell you a plant needs the correct conditions to grow. The trees that were planted on the peat bogs never thrived and were stunted. Therefore by taking account of the habitat and ecology of the area in and around Kielder Forest there Forestry Commission are now growing better trees.

However this is not always the case. The FC, a government body, owns and manages the majority of the woods in Britain but there are many hundreds of thousands of acres that are privately owned. If we still had even a quarter of the tree cover that once existed we could just leave the trees to grow, but to get good quality timber requires management. Not least because the mammals and birds that were in the past there feeding on the insects that can damage trees and impair the timber.

Even in woodlands that are owned for the benefit of wildlife need to be managed, and often a well managed woodland has a greater biodiversity in them. They may not be managed to be chocolate box pretty, but well managed often means creating the habitats that will benefit the creatures that feed on the invertebrates that could damage the trees. Like creating log piles, or leaving dead trees standing.

So it is surprising to discover that often in Britain commercial woodlands are not making a profit, especially on hard woods where there has been a great demand. As I researched this enigma I discovered that there are two main reasons for this.

The first relates to the commercial reality of growing trees for wood. As it takes a long time to grow trees to a size that makes them commercially viable, a long view needs to be taken. Far to often commercial estates are not prepared to wait the generations needed to grow the timber. Therefore the trees are neglected and there is not the management work carried out, thus the timber ends up being of poor quality. With most timber trees, especially hard woods, yielding on forty percent of useful timber as a result of that neglect. That means these woodlands are not commercially viable and are neglected even further.

Also, while hardwood prices remain reasonably strong as there is still a demand for hard woods, much of this demand is being met by imports. While not all imported hard woods are from illegal sources, there is a significant volume that is coming in to create a downward pressure on the price of lumber.

Therefore by neglecting our woodlands and failing to develop the commercial potential, we are indirectly adding to the destruction of tropical forests. The biggest environmental tool we all have is the money we spend. The need for wood will not diminish and in fact with Climate Change and the need for alternative forms of energy to fossil fuels, there will be even greater need for wood and timber in the future. Therefore we need to start caring for our woodlands much more than we do at present. I should not need to say that it is important that we ensure that the wood or wood products that we all buy comes from sustainable sources. As simply all the illegal logging would stop if we stopped buying any suspect timber or product. This would soon get the multi national companies who hide their buying of stolen timber behind an opaque supply chain, to stop using wood from any suspect source.

The growing of more trees here combined with better management will help the tropical forests, as well as helping dealing with Climate Change. I have often spoken of the need to develop a much more environmentally aware economy. This is one area where a real economic benefit can be created. There are fast growing trees that could be grown on the poor and marginal agricultural land for wood burning heaters. By coppice management, these woods can be planted and producing logs in five years. If this were combined with planting trees that require a much longer period of growth, we in Britain could find in thirty years we will start to reduce the need for imports of timber. In a time when we need to dramatically reduce the balance of payments deficit for the next three generations, moving towards a Green Economy in this matter will have the positive effects in the real economy too. The wildlife benefit of properly managing new and existing woodlands will also help reduce the expenditure on conservation measures.

Trees are important to many aspects of our life. Only by ensuring that we look after our trees now can we hope to have them there in the future.