David Cracknell, renowned piano player, has started a substack, newshound68, kicking off with a piece musing on the mostly felled Toby Carvery Oak, a 500+ year old Common Oak in North London, and the implications of people’s reactions.
His first post rightly points out the difference between a natural forest and a Sitka Spruce forestry plantation.
He is on the money when he says that the best forests for wildlife are managed by humans with a cycle of coppicing, pruning, felling, and replanting. This skilful human activity prevents the formation of a solid canopy that shades out the forest floor, allowing many more species to thrive, and prolongs the life of the grand old trees that aren’t being felled.
But his post also begs a big question.
David states:
“There is a failure – not just among the public, but policymakers, commentators, and even some arborists – to grasp a few basic facts about how trees live, die, and regenerate. Until we address this, our woodland policy will continue to falter, no matter how many trees we plant.”
Which is fair enough, to an extent. Many years ago, I was coppicing some neglected hazels in Kent, when someone driving past got to the end of the road, turned around, parked nearby, got out and began shouting at us for “destroying trees”.
Naturally, I explained that these were Canadian killer hazels, and I was on a mission from John Major to save England; that was the end of the matter.
However, one could reasonably reply to David, “is lack of knowledge among policymakers actually the reason for the state of Britain’s forests? Surely it is plausible that the people in charge are fully aware of how trees live, die, and regenerate, but operate according to other concerns, such as making money and keeping their boss happy?”
A vastly more cynical person than me might go one further: does David’s case really go against these policymakers, or is it making rather weak excuses for them, pleading ignorance on their behalf?
I don’t know, and David has a lot more political insight than me, so I could be barking up a non-existent tree.
Still, his post ends on a note that sounds like it’s pointing a finger at you and me, Dear Reader, rather than the policymakers and industry leaders who run the show.
“Britain’s love of trees is real, but it needs to grow up. We need an ecological maturity that sees a felled tree not just as loss, but as renewal.”
What do you mean ‘we,’ Kemosabe?
What does the “ecological maturity” of the average person have to do with Britain’s forestry policy?
We have no say over any forests, unless we own one.
And that is the note I want to end on.
- If I have room in my garden for a hedge, I have room for a slice of forest: native hedges are perfect, but any mixed species hedge is better for nature than a single species.
- If I have a field or other piece of land, it’s likely that I can spare a few square metres in the worst corner for a mini forest, perhaps using Miyawaki Method high density planting.
- If I already own some forest, I can manage it in a way that enhances its usefulness, beauty, and financial value, as well as its wildlife capacity.
When planting any forest, you will use bareroot tree “whips”, meaning young, usually unbranched trees under 1 metres tall, or small, cell grown conifers that have a plug of soil on their roots.
The bareroot planting season is in Winter, roughly November-March, and our newsletter will tell you as soon as we open the order books for bareroot trees for the 2025/26 Winter planting season.