New woodland is expected to sprout up across England over the next 12 months as ministers pledge to plant four million trees. The £6 million investment for 2014/15 comes as the Government confirmed it will continue financing the creation of green areas.
It will be part of £30 million funding for English woodlands, with the rest of the cash being put towards management of existing woods. The money will bring 2,000 hectares (5,000 acres) of new woods. In addition, the Government said new grants for planting trees were proposed from next year.
Conservationists welcomed the continued woodland creation project funding – something which had been unclear until now. But they say that the promised rate of planting is still too low. It falls way below the Government’s own target of creating 5,000 hectares of new woodland (12,000 acres), the Woodland Trust said.
The Government’s pledge was made in the wake of the aborted plans to sell off or hand to charities all of England’s public forests, which sparked huge outcry. The Woodland Trust is also concerned about threats to existing woodland.
These include development and the chance that developers could be permitted to chop down ancient woodland if they “offset” the damage with new planting somewhere else.
Source: Interflora – Four Million Trees to Be Planted in the UK
