Seeing the Wood for the Trees

On Wednesday I was delighted to launch the CLA’s ground-breaking report Seeing the Wood for the Trees which sets out our vision for the forests and woods of England and Wales.

At the launch, packed with journalists and industry representatives, our Woodlands and Forestry Advisor Mike Seville, William Worsley and I endeavoured to show how our forests and woodlands have suffered in recent times. In England we currently harvest less than 40 percent of the volume of timber that grows in the woods each year and less than one percent of the value of timber is returned to the grower who sells it – the lowest in Europe. Coupled with this between 2003 and 2008 new planting almost halved, falling from 5,100 hectares a year to 2,800 hectares a year.

 

A subject of great concern to all attendees was the burgeoning grey squirrel population causing damage to our trees and driving out red squirrels. I will be meeting soon with the Red Squirrel Survival Trust to see what can be done on the latter issue in particular. The subsequent reporting in the national press focussed on the grey squirrel.

 

For the record, nobody is calling for the outright extermination of grey squirrels. Rather, as the report points out,  their numbers need to be significantly reduced if we are to preserve the forests and woodlands we value so highly and for so many reasons; not least the environmental benefits they provide,  the timber they produce and their role in mitigating the effects of climate change.

 

Grey squirrels do immense harm to forestry interests. They strip the bark from both the base and the crown of the tree which will usually be enough to kill it. Their attentions are no longer confined to beech and sycamore. They have now moved on to oaks and many other species.  They also often damage the better quality trees as the phloem; the jelly-like layer under the bark they eat, is thicker in these trees. The effect of this damage irrevocably reduces the quality of the timber, often letting in disease, rendering them unstable and resulting in premature death. This means that instead of ending up as furniture or building materials the timber is only fit for firewood.

 

The plight of the native red squirrel is a related, but separate, concern. The species is now effectively endangered in England and Wales and is under threat in Scotland.  The principle cause is the squirrel pox virus, which is spread by the grey squirrel but which does not harm it. It is only by doing more to keep the greys in check that the reds will have a future.

 

It is therefore in the interests of both the woodland economy and the conservation of our native fauna that grey squirrels are eliminated in those areas where they are a significant problem.

 

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