Northern Forest: can’t see the wood or the trees

 

 

Northern Forest: can’t see the wood or the trees

Tree planting slows while HS2 decimates woods

As published in the penultimate issue of the Big Issue North, 01 May - 7th May 2023 

Despite the planting of five million new trees between 2018 and the start of the planting season this year environmental campaigners remain doubtful about the long term success of the Northern Forest (NF) under which there are plans for 50 million new trees by 2043.

In 2017 only 1,000 hectares of trees were planted – the lowest for years. Plans to extend the HS2

high-speed rail link to Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds were also set to decimate 97 ancient woodlands across our region.

Environment secretary Michael Gove responded by announcing the Northern Forest, stretching from Hull to Liverpool. Tree cover around cities would be expected to grow from eight to 17 per cent.

The 25-year project was expected to cost £500 million, of which the government, despite strong criticism, promised to provide just £5.7 million, with the rest to be raised by charity. In 2021 and with just three million trees planted the government stepped in with a further £15 million funding from the £640 million Nature for Climate fund to allow another million trees to be planted last year.

Bringing to life the new woodlands are the Woodland Trust and the Community Forests in the North of England – the Mersey Forest, Manchester City of Trees, the White Rose Forest and Humber Forest.

Joint efforts

Nick Selwood is the Northern Forest project manager for the Woodland Trust. His role is to manage teams “to ensure we deliver a lot of quality tree planting for communities right across the North”.

This requires engaging with partners including local authorities and landowners including the National Trust, water companies such as Yorkshire Water and United Utilities, and farmers.

“We encourage joint efforts to plant trees and create access opportunities to them for the public. Even before we started planting this year there were already five million new trees planted.”

According to Selwood most of the new trees, especially outside urban areas, are native species such as oak, birch and rowan.

“This is because they are better for local wildlife and they’re attractive, so people want to walk through the woods and enjoy a day out with the family or cycle,” he said.

Landowners

Because native trees are more slow growing than conifers, they capture less carbon and contribute less to tackling climate change. Does Selwood expect the government to put pressure on Northern Forest partners to change direction in the future, or that there will be bias exerted towards landowners who plant conifers in densely packed forests?

“There is a need for conifers to be grown commercially but we are not under pressure to change our approach,” he said.

Where landowners do get involved, they can receive up to £13,000 per hectare to support their

woodland creation scheme, plus up to £2,800 per hectare for woodlands that restore nature and species under the England Woodland Creation Offer.

Roly Smith, an environmental campaigner and writer from the Peak District, is sceptical that the Northern Forest will do better than the National Forest in the Midlands, which still has only just over half of its planned 13,500 hectares planted since being announced in 1995.

“With the National Forest they intended joining up patchy woodlands,” he said. “It hasn’t happened. Five million new trees planted further North looks impressive but it still remains way down on the planned 50 million over 25 years. And despite the cutback in HS2 there are still numerous ancient woodlands set to be chopped down.

Alleviate flooding

“I also don’t see any serious ambitions having been announced to plant more trees in the upland moors, which could alleviate flooding lower down the river systems such as places like Hebden Bridge or York. Apart from the obvious wildlife and carbon offsetting benefits, this would also restore many landscapes which have been overgrazed or ‘sheep wrecked’, as George Monbiot puts it, by too many sheep for too many years.”

Charlie Clutterbuck, a Lancashire soil scientist who was a special adviser to the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) Select Committee in 2008-10, is also unconvinced by the Northern Forest plans.

“Pulling teeth”

“There are many schemes to plant trees and they are to be welcomed,” said Clutterbuck “But it is one thing to plant trees and another to look after them. Just recently a blunder by the National Highways saw over 600,000 trees die along the A14 in Cambridgeshire. I am secretary to our local woodland friends group, and getting money out of the council to maintain them is like pulling teeth.

“Many trees are also planted badly on soils not appropriate for them. To paraphrase a well-known saying, planting a tree is not just for Christmas, but its lifetime.”

When asked if it was confident that plans to create a 50 million strong tree forest across the North by 2041 will be successful, Defra admitted the government department was unsure, saying:

“Defra funds a small portion of the Northern Forest (1,259 ha) as part of the Nature for Climate Fund Programme. As a result, it is difficult to comment on the wider target of 50 million trees by 2043.”