Caledonia’s lost forest to be restored to glory in £23m rewilding

Ancient woodland will be pieced back together as part of Europe-wide project that will give endangered species their habitats back

Robin McKie, Science Editor

Sun 7 Oct 2018 07.00 BST

Only a few tattered scraps of woodland in the Cairngorms provide evidence that a vast forest once covered the Scottish Highlands and much of the rest of the nation. This vast arboreal canopy provided homes for wolves, lynx, elks and many other species.

Land clearances for farming, and felling trees for timber, destroyed most of that habitat hundreds of years ago, leaving only a few disconnected fragments of land to provide shelter for dwindling numbers of animals.

But conservationists believe they may soon be able to restore a substantial chunk of this lost landscape and bring Caledonia’s beleaguered forest back to some of its ancient glory. A £23m Endangered Landscapes Programme (ELP)has selected the remains of the Caledonian Forest to be the focus of a key restoration project – along with seven other major regeneration schemes – to restore Europe’s most threatened environments.

 “The aim of the Scottish project is to connect up the fragments of Caledonian Forest with land that is no longer degraded – as it is at present – so that threatened species can communicate and move around,” said Jeremy Roberts, of the RSPB, one of the major groups involved in the Cairngorms Connect project.

“We are also going to provide restored habitats for threatened species that include rare sphagnum mosses, sundews, dragonflies and damson flies. It is going to be the biggest habitat restoration project in Britain. We will be working on more than 600 square kilometres of land.”

Continued  

Campaigners attack proposals to allow destruction of ancient woodlands

Green campaigners have urged the government not to "gamble" with England's natural heritage after the environment secretary defended plans to allow developers to destroy ancient woodland.

Owen Paterson sparked anger after defending the "biodiversity offsetting" scheme that he plans to introduce under which woodlands could be cut down to make way for new construction if developers agree to plant 100 trees for every one they destroy.

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Wentwood Forest: Larch disease felling in ancient woodland

The felling of diseased trees across an area the size of around 300 football pitches is taking place at Wales' largest ancient woodland.

Larch trees at Wentwood Forest, near Newport, have become infected with the fungal disease Phytophthora ramorum.

The infection can kill trees and has spread across the UK after being found in south west England four years ago.

The Woodland Trust, which owns most of the forest, said the felling of the trees was essential.

"This is the most serious and devastating action we've had to take on our estate," said the trust's head of woodland management, Andrew Sharkey.

"It again highlights both the need to tackle tree disease and the importance of restoring as much of our damaged ancient woodland to make it more resilient in decades to come."

Felling the infected conifers across an area of 200 hectares (500 acres) will leave the Woodland Trust with a £35,000 bill for replanting in the forest.

It also hits restoration work that has been taking place since the trust bought 352 hectares (869 acres) of Wentwood in 2006.

Continued

Two hundred ancient woodlands at threat from development

More than 200 ancient woodlands are currently under threat from development, and many more could be at risk without changes to the proposed planning reforms, campaigners are warning.

The Woodland Trust said 630 ancient woods had been threatened by development such as quarries and roads in the past decade, with 111 sites lost in 10 years due to weaknesses in planning policy, and 225 were still under threat.

New maps from the trust show dozens of woodlands dating back more than 400 years at risk around London, with others threatened from Cornwall to the north of England.

The final version of a major overhaul of the planning rules, which the Government insists is needed to boost economic growth but which has provoked fears among countryside campaigners of inappropriate development and urban sprawl, is expected shortly.

Before its publication, the Woodland Trust issued a last-ditch plea to ministers to close what they say is a ''loophole'' in the proposed planning framework, which focuses on ''sustainable development'', to prevent more ancient woods being at risk.

The trust fears provisions in the new document, which says planning permission should be refused if it leads to the loss or deterioration of irreplaceable habitats such as ancient woodland or aged trees, are undermined by the caveat: ''unless the need for, and benefits of, the development in that location clearly outweigh the loss''.

Read on:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/countryside/9122002/Two-hundred-ancient-woodlands-at-threat-from-development.html

Largest single threat to England’s ancient woodland goes to public inquiry

Area the size of 30 football pitches could be destroyed

PRECIOUS: Oaken Wood near Maidstone is home to many important species of wildlife

August 2011: A controversial plan to extend a Kent quarry has been called in for public inquiry.
The application to extend the quarry into Oaken Wood near Maidstone would, if passed, see the destruction of an area about the size of 30 football pitches of irreplaceable ancient woodland.

Oaken Wood is home to wildlife species so rare they are designated nationally scarce or endangered and the scale of the plans would make it the largest case of destruction to ancient woodland England in recent times - yet the developer, Gallagher Ltd, was originally given the go-ahead by Kent County Council.

Time the Government lived up to its promises
But now, under pressure from conservation groups and local campaigners, Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (CLG), has called in the application for public inquiry.

Nikki Williams, head of campaigning at the Woodland Trust, said: ‘This is the moment for Government to make good on Caroline Spelman's promises earlier in the year to bring in better protection for of ancient woodland in the UK.

‘More than 5,500 people wrote directly to Mr Pickles demanding this call in, so if the "Big Society" is to mean anything, Mr Pickles needs to listen to their concerns.

‘Once ancient woodland is gone, it has gone for ever. You can't recreate it with new planting or by translocating soils - as Gallagher's tried to suggest in their mitigation. We now have a second chance to turn back from the brink over Oaken Wood, but frankly this application should never have got this far. It breaks government planning guidance and an independent planning consultant threw out the argument that it is needed to meet local demand.'

Will fragment and isolate vital habitats
The Woodland Trust, Kent Wildlife Trust and local action groups have lobbied for a public inquiry over the case, which is also in contravention of Planning Policy Statements 1 and 9 which both contain a strong presumption against development in areas of ancient woodland, unless the development would provide overriding benefits.

The Woodland Trust has claimed the quarrying operations will have a huge indirect impact beyond the core area of 33ha on the neighbouring woodland. Currently Oaken Wood is part of a continuous habitat covering 120ha, closely linked to another 48ha of woodland, and much of its value for wildlife lies in this connectivity.

Independent research commissioned by the trust has shown that by fragmenting and isolating habitats, species are unable to move between them and might avoid the woodland near the quarry altogether.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/woodland-destruction.html#cr

The Theft of British Woodland

Press Release

The theft of British Woodland... Campaign to prevent the sale of the nation’s woodland through tax reform

A thousand year-old crime is being repeated today... and Sir Winston Churchill had the solution.

Today – Wednesday 2nd February, the British parliament will vote to perpetrate a crime against the nation that has been happening for a thousand years.

Wildwood Trust is joining the hundreds of thousands of people calling for the Coalition government not to sell our nation’s woodland.

Since our Norman Conquerors first landed on the Kent coast, the people of Britain have seen their land stolen from them. First the Barons, then the landed gentry stole the birth right of every Englishman, Scot and Welshman. British taxpayers have been paying for this land grab every year since.

The Coalition Government is continuing this crime, a crime we are committing against our children, stealing their birthright to enjoy the British countryside and its wildlife.

The sale of British woodlands sees public assets ‘privatised’, then rented back to us at huge rents.

We are condemning future generation to pay a rent for accessing the few remaining bits of woodland and be taxed more heavily to protect its wildlife.

Private ‘investors’ can buy the land, and then claim huge tax breaks, Government grants and assistance at the expense of taxpayers.

Already the taxpayer is forced to pay a hundreds of millions of pounds every year subsidy to the wealthiest landowners in the country and this scheme will further entrench the grip of private landowners on the nation’s assets.

The State should have no authority to sell land that citizens then have to effectively rent back. We have seen this happen to 100’s billions of pounds worth of public assets over the last 30 years.

Britain has seen its wild woodland’s systematically devastated, with over 50% of our ancient woodlands lost since the Second World War. The UK is one of Europe’s most poorly wooded counties, with only 15% of our land enjoying tree cover against a European average of over 40%.

Wildwood Trust’s Chief Executive has been working with leading economist, Fred Harrison, to come up with an economic plan that will not only restore wild woodlands but help revitalize the Britain’s economy. The coming months will see Mr Harrison publish a book out of the collaboration and a ground breaking documentary.

Wildwood Trust’s Chief Executive Peter Smith said:

“Land is the most crucial element to the protection of wildlife in this country. And it is the policy of Wildwood Trust to reverse the sale of the public’s land into private hands.

The privatisation of land over the last 1000 years has been a disaster for British wildlife. Further privatisations will continue this appalling history of loss. This country needs to create a network of commonly owned land that can remain wild.”

“Wildwood’s vison for the creation of national woodlands is inspired by the work pioneered by the country’s greatest statesmen, namely David Lloyd George and Sir Winston Churchill. This can be achieved at no cost to the taxpayer by a small change to our taxation system.”

This tax reform was championed by the world’s greatest economists such as Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Henry George and Milton Freedman. A solution that is supported by Business Secretary Vince Cable, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and members of all political persuasions, both right and left, who understand the role of land values in our economic system.

That solution could abolish income tax and VAT and help the UK revitalise its economy. The solution would be to levy a tax equal to the rental value of all land. In essence all landowners would have to pay an annual rent to the Government for the exclusive possession of that land.

This would be a replacement for other taxes, so that 95% of the British public would be much better off, freeing up the talented and hardworking people to keep more from their efforts. It would create jobs for the unemployed and put an end to property speculators and house price boom and busts.

Tax dodgers and large landowners would be very much worse off and many would be forced to sell their land to others who could make better use of it. Wildlife would recover, and landowners who put their land into a charitable trust with the objective of sustaining its wildlife would be exempt from the land value tax.

Wildwood Trust is calling on the Government to protect wildlife and stop the sale of one of the nation’s greatest assets.

******* End *********
For more information conact:
Peter Smith, Chief Executive of Wildwood Trust
Fred Harrison, Research Director of the Land Research Trust. Fred can be contacted through Wildwood Trust.

Tel: 01227 712111
Mobile: 07986 828229

Project to protect 7,000-year-old haven for wildlife is completed

CONSERVATIONISTS have completed a three-year project to protect a precious patch of 7,000-year-old woodland in Lincolnshire.


Since 2007, £175,000 worth of work has been carried out on Goltho Wood, north east of Lincoln, by the Woodland Trust.

And, after planting 30,000 native tree saplings as a buffer around the ancient limewood, and creating 20 hectares of wildflower rich grassland, ponds, wet woodland and marshland, the scheme has finished and wildlife-lovers can visit the site, near Wragby.

Liz McLelland, of the Woodland Trust, said: "Goltho Wood is one of the trust's standout sites in Lincolnshire and the benefits of the work, generously funded by SITA Trust can already be clearly seen.

"We'd love people across Lincolnshire to visit and see the fruits of our labour.


"The 30,000 new trees will create habitat corridors between the existing ancient woodland and provide homes for everything from Pipistrelle bats and herons to dormice and white admiral butterflies."

Surveys have already shown that many bird species, such as teal, lapwing and geese are overwintering on water meadows created at the wood, and there has been evidence of otters colonising in the vicinity of dams that have been created to periodically flood adjacent meadows.

The work has also involved hundreds of local residents helping to plant the thousands of native trees, with volunteers taking part in research and even holding talks for local groups.

Jools Granville of the ethical funding organisation the SITA Trust said: "It is always very inspiring to be involved in a project that helps to ignite people's passion for the natural world.

"Funding of £175,000 has enabled years of very hard work by The Woodland Trust and countless members of the general public to make Goltho Wood a place where the diverse wonders of nature can be enjoyed for generations to come."

For more information about the work and to find out how to visit www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/ wood/wragby

http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/news/7-000-year-old-haven-precious-wildlife/article-2965242-detail/article.html