I've been following with interest the publicity around the Public Bodies Bill and the proposed sale and changes to the Forestry Commission estate.
Public Bodies Bill - documents
Consultation process - DEFRA details
Forestry Commission - Public consultation
Woodland Trust - response
National Trust - canvassing opinion
Save our woods on Twitter is a good one-stop-shop.
Local to me in Cheshire Delemere Forest - documented from Norman times and on the doorstep to 5 million people in the north-west of England, is unlikely to be classified as heritage forest.
Established environmental campaigner Jonathon Porrit makes some interesting observations in his blog.
I'm struggling to see the benefit that changes will bring and also under threat of sale are National Nature Reserves (and maybe land alongside canals in British Waterways portfolio).
After the outcry and rallying of public opposition to proposed changes - particularly after the defeat of an opposition amendment Early Day Motion in The House of Commons, a concerted effort to oppose the changes is gathering support.
Opposition to the bill requires further support, as it is a piece of pernicious 'enabling legislation' that allows Government to make sweeping changes away from proper scrutiny.
Get emailing and writing to your M.P. and challenge them on their outlook and participation regarding the progress of this Bill.
Regarding the overall campaign, don't just think it's about a fence and 'private' sign going on parts of the Forestry Commission estate - the balanced structure of how that organisation functions is about to be ripped apart. The Forestry Commission have since inception in 1919, gone from being just commercial forester previously planting tracts of mono-cultured softwood, to arbiter of sustainable woodland management for almost all interested parties, for about 30 pence per tax-payer per year. A coordinated economy of scale enaables research, conservation and shared knowledge for private woodland owners too.
There is a suggestion that suitable charities could run the designated 'heritage forests' with community input. I seriously doubt the gap left by expelling the Forestry Commission can be filled seamlessly by any existing groups without serious regression or even damage.
I have for several years belonged to a small educational charitable trust that initially took on 30 acres of clear-felled Forestry Commission 'surplus' land when the John Major Conservative Government tried to sell off parts of the Forestry Commission.
Trying to manage woodland by committee and consensus is not an easy task - the Forestry Commission's present activities, performance and direction and coordination would be difficult to improve on.
It is somewhat ironic that the United Nations have designated 2011 as International Year of Forests...
Back to my field and home:
An automated flood alert from the Environment Agency for the lower Dee Valley, with the level coming up at Farndon.
Hopefully it'll have settled by the time I'm home for getting ahead with the fencing and hedging.
A large bundle of apple root-stocks ordered for grafting some selected wayside apples I've spotted on my travels.
I suspect they are from discarded apple-cores, but they seem to have adapted and thrived in quite arduous countryside and give viable pleasant fruit...
(I was surprised that fruit tree root-stocks attract full VAT at 20%, even though entire fruit trees are exempt).
A small quantity of plumbing and hose fittings ironically ordered during this weeks rain and high water - ready for summer watering of the nursery stock at home and to mitigate any dry spells for this year's plantings down at the field.
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