Woodland
Lancashire
as
a
whole has about 4.6%
coverage of trees and woodland - a bit below the national average but
still quite adequate. More details can be found on the national
Forestry
Commission
website
: www.forestry.gov.uk
The Forestry Commission, the national government department
responsible for the 'protection and expansion of Britain's forests and
woodlands', owns or manages 2 million acres of woodland which generated
£24 million last year from timber sales.
A report commissioned by the F.C. showed that if an extra 4% of
the U.K.'s land was planted with new woodland over the next 40 years,
it could remove 10% of damaging carbon emissions.
One expert suggests that agro-forestry would create
even more benefits : this means sharing woodland with cows, chickens
and pigs, which all fare better under the cover of trees.
The
Coalition
government
was planning to sell off 370,000 acres of English
woodland
under public ownership. They hoped to raise £5 billion from the
sale. Quite apart from the environmental ellects, it was likely that
thousands of jobs would be lost.
'An
unforgiveable act of environmental vandalism' :
this was the response from Caroline Lucas, leader of the Green Party.
The Government was shocked at the angry response
from the public. Half a million people signed the petition at 38degrees.org.uk and forced
the Coalition to back down.
Perhaps the Government has learned the lesson ?