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Conifer trees get the chop

Effort to restore traditional varieties of English woodland gives owners second subsidy to replace foreign species planted for timber

John Vidal, environment editor
Tuesday June 28, 2005
The Guardian

Owners of ancient English woodland, including some of Britain's richest landowners, will be paid by the government to cut down millions of conifers and non-native tree species which they were paid to plant up to 30 years ago.
The Forestry Commission will announce tomorrow that up to 20 million trees considered to be the wrong species in the wrong place will be felled over the next 20 years to be replaced by species such as oak, ash and beech.

The intention is to make English woodland more attractive, accessible to people and wildlife, and useful for recreation, said Jonathan Hughes, Forestry Commission policy officer. "The landscape will be different. Woodland will look more naturalistic, its edges will be less well defined.
"The aim is to to reverse the steep decline in England's ancient and native woods. Removing the conifers will open the woodland up."

The government was not trying to cleanse the countryside. "This is not biological racism. We are not purging the whole English countryside of conifers. In the right place, conifers are great. In the wrong place, they are not."

The government defended paying woodland owners to remove the trees, many of which are now mature and due to be felled anyway. In a briefing document, it says it cannot expect private owners to protect the "non-market benefits" such as wildlife, heritage, and water without some state support. "The Forestry Commission must deliver public benefits if it is to justify spending the public purse."

It is not known exactly how much money will be made available to restock the woods with native species but it is expected to be millions of pounds. "Strictly, the grants will be available to restock [woods] with broadleaf trees after [conifers] have been felled. But effectively we are paying for restoration," Mr Hughes said.

"We did pay people to plant these trees, but the country had different priorities then. It's one of the ironies. Ideas have changed and we have learned lessons. Woodland today is much more about quality of life issues. Ever increasing numbers of people value woodlands for recreation and wildlife."

He said that in financial terms the social and environmental benefits of forestry amount to £885m a year in England. "A recent study in the West Midlands found that woodland saved the NHS £4.5m a year."

England has an estimated 1.1m hectares (2.7m acres) of woodland, of which ancient woodland - over 400 years old - covers 30%. Of this, 140,000 hectares were converted to conifer plantations in the 20th century, largely with grants.

But native woodland, which is mainly found in small, fragmented patches, has proved to be specially vulnerable to conifers. Plantations on ancient woodland sites make up only 13% of the total woodland resource in England and only half of this is conifers.