Calls for forestry law to better protect wildlife

Conservationists argue current legislation puts red squirrels and other species at risk.

Forestry laws in England and Wales should be amended to protect some of the UK’s rarest species, such as red squirrels and bats, according to a prominent conservationist.

Craig Shuttleworth, of the Red Squirrels Trust Wales, says that forestry legislation does not allow felling licences in England and Wales to take account of the impact on wildlife. It means that trees can be taken out during the breeding season, when many animals are at their most vulnerable.

Shuttleworth became aware of the issue last year when tree felling was given the go-ahead in an area of Anglesey that is home to a high number of breeding red squirrels.

“The density of squirrels was so high that the probability of young animals

being in nests and getting destroyed by harvesting machines was very high,” Shuttleworth says.

But Natural Resources Wales (NRW) told him forestry legislation did not allow it to attach any conditions to the felling licence in order to protect the squirrels. In the event, the contractor did not proceed, but Shuttleworth realised he’d stumbled across a major flaw in the way wildlife is protected.

NRW says the Forestry Act only allows it to attach conditions to felling licences relating to the restocking of trees. “We believe it would allow us to better protect Wales’ woodlands and biodiversity if we could extend these conditions, and we’re looking into a number of options to do this,” says head of natural resource management policy Ruth Jenkins.

In England, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has responded to a petition by stating that there are already sufficient safeguards. “Applicants for a felling licence are required to evidence how they propose to manage the impact of felling on wildlife,” it says.

But Shuttleworth insists this is not sufficient. “Guidance is not the same as a condition,” he says. In Scotland, the law was changed so that felling licences can be refused, or granted with conditions, in order to conserve wildlife, and the same amendments are now needed in England and Wales, he believes. James Fair

FIND OUT MORE

Read the petition (now closed) and Defra’s response at bit.ly/forestryact

In Scotland, licences to fell woodland can be refused, to protect forest wildlife such as the red squirrel, but what about the rest of the UK?