Fight to stop this forest famine Birdman
TREES made Britain great. Nelson’s warships were hewn from mighty oaks and arrows shaped from ash tree sprigs won the day at Agincourt, fi red, as any history student knows, from bows of ancient yew.
The fi nest cricket bats are made from willow and most of us sat at school desks that began life as beech trees.
After the last ice age 10,000 years ago, Britain became a verdant sea of broadleaf woodland and it was said a squirrel could cross the country without touching the ground.
One can imagine walking through the medieval wildwood. Glorious dawn choruses, rich with the voices of nightingales and wood warblers would have rippled through air thick with the heady potpourri of forest plants.
Today the green woods of summer are a shadow of their glorious past. In my birding lifetime, I have seen so many species vanish from the groves and the lush under-storey.
Look at the facts. Over the last 25 years willow tits have woodland owners rewarded for taking the right action for nature.
“This should include grants, support for markets that drive woodland management such as wood fuel and, where necessary, regulation to stop damage occurring.
“We import over 80 per cent of the timber we use in the UK yet only half of UK woodland is in sustainable management.
“If we get it right, then management of woodland could provide an income for the owner and work hand-in-hand with increasing woodland access and fighting wildlife decline.
“In short, we need a new woodland culture.”