https://forestrycommission.blog.gov.uk/2023/02/27/grow-your-income-using-every-part-of-a-tree/
Grow your income using every part of a tree
Posted by:
Asia Aldridge, Posted on:
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Categories:
Tree Planting, Woodland creation, Woodland management
4 comments
Comment by Karina Ponton posted on
Looks like a great poster. I'm a little disappointed that FC are actively encouraging game shoots. 57 million gamebirds are released in the UK countryside each year, 10 times higher than in 1961. I find it bizarre that it’s perfectly acceptable for a primary objective of a woodland to be to maintain a shoot. Gamebird pens have been found to have a negative impact on native woodland plant and animal species including floristic species composition such as reductions in honeysuckle and wood sorrel and increases in thistle and nettles with nutrient increase from droppings. They are also linked to reductions in larger beetles, reptiles, amphibians and young birds, as these are vulnerable to predation by pheasants (Wyglinski, 2016). As wild bird breeding pairs have declined by 19 million pairs since the 1960s (RSPB), I think it's time we actively encourage more biodiversity friendly routes for tree marketing.
Comment by wendyjohnson posted on
Thanks for your comment. In this graphic we were highlighting the potential for newly created woodlands to provide a number benefits to the owner. We absolutely recognise that not all owners have an interest in creating new habitat for game birds and instead might be more interested in creating woodlands to develop other business opportunities including camping, biking, or nature watching, carbon, and water quality. In some cases it will be possible to develop several income streams from a single woodland. Some owners will want to establish woodland purely for biodiversity benefits with no income expectations. Our woodland creation incentives help owners achieve their aims and support well planned woodlands that will provide a number of environmental and social benefits and potentially long term income.
Comment by Charles Mann posted on
very pragmatic reply. so much of the UK countryside that is so wonderful and appreciated by millions of both home and overseas tourists is the result of generations of stewardship with multiple aims and mostly at no cost to the tax-payer.The FC is being generously broad-minded in highlighting many advantages to woodland planting and it has to be acknowledged that not all of these tick every potential tree-planters box, but if this encourages an expansion in the woodland cover then that is a real benefit for the future of our world.
Comment by Becky Miller posted on
You could also include 'forest bathing' to this list, as well as 'ally cropping' - my grandfather used to practice that post-war near Bedford, Growing poplar trees for the matchstick company Bryant and May, and using the space in between the trees on rotation to crow other crops, fruit bushes, as well as grazing sheep.