Conifers face axe to save British woodland
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Much of the landscape is to be radically altered over the next 100 years as the Forestry Commission fells tens of millions of conifer trees to stimulate the growth of ash, beech, oak, hazel, field maple and other native broadleaved species.
The 100-year programme to "persecute the conifer" is expected to make British woodland lighter, more accessible and attractive, and to stimulate recreation and conservation.
Conifers have been trees of strategic choice for successive governments since 1919 when the Forestry Commission was set up, but in the past 20 years Britain has largely turned to Scandinavia and Canada to get its supplies. Vast stands of spruce, firs, pines and the western red cedar still exist on former farmland in Britain, but the new policy is to eradicate them slowly from areas of ancient woodland.
"It's not the end of the conifer. They will still be an important part of British woodlands, but we will be favouring the broadleaved trees in many areas," said Peter Brett, operations manager for the Forestry Commission in Dorset.
Mr Brett and his colleagues have started felling more than 1m trees across 5,000 acres of Cranborne Chase in Dorset. Over the next 50 years the area will be returned to roughly how it looked in the 19th century when Thomas Hardy had Alec D'Urberville take Tess on a horse ride through woodland on the Chase.
"Above them rose the primeval yews and oaks, in which were poised gentle roosting birds in their last nap; and about them stole the hopping rabbits and hares," wrote Hardy.
Mr Brett and his colleagues will be felling more than 1m conifers from more than 20 large woodlands in Dorset. "Where there are areas of pure conifers we will thin them gradually," he said, "increasing the light levels and allow native woodland to regenerate.
"Planting conifers used to be seen as a primary need because they grew more quickly then our native species and the wood they produced was essential. There was also a huge need for pit props in the coal mining industry."
"But now there is no real need and returning our woodlands to how they once were fits in with government policies on the environment."
"In 1919 just 3% of our land was woodland and that figure now stands at around 11% and is increasing.
"Our woods will be brighter and sunnier and in winter they will be a little colder and also the smell will gradually change. It will be good for animals such as butterflies and dormice and plants like bluebells and primroses."
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