96,000

1 Mar 2010, 09:28 Add Comment

That's a lot. Of what exactly? 96,000 hectares in areas of woodland more than two hectares in size in the North West.

So? It's too low. Our region's level of woodland cover is lower than the national average (6.6% versus 8.4% of land area) and radically lower than the European average (31% of land area). This means we have less accessible woodland for each person, less carbon stored in our landscape, and that we're a less 'green' region when it comes to everything from our external image to the amount of timber we produce. We could and should do a lot better!

Fair enough. What should we do? It's really simple. We plant more trees. We can also manage the ones we have better, too. If we radically increase our level of woodland creation in both rural and urban areas we can create new opportunities for recreation, reduce the warming of our cities due to global warming and we could store millions of tonnes of carbon.

What if nothing is done? If we do nothing we'll be more at risk from the impacts of climate change, our existing areas of woodland will come under greater strain, we'll miss a trick on our targets for greenhouses gases and, in a generation, we'll see timber production fall off the end of a plank, so to speak.

Who is leading the way? Our region's Forestry Framework, which includes the Forestry Commission, the Community Forests, NWDA, Natural England, the forestry sector itself and a host of local authorities, NGOs and other agencies.

Further reading: There's a new manifesto for forestry on its way but until then, the existing case for woodlands can be viewed at the regional Framework's website: http://www.iwood.org/

Steve Connor is chairman of the Northwest Forestry Framework. He doesn't actually know how to use a chainsaw, but knows a number of people who can.

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