Sunday 20 February 2011

Save Our Forests, Part 2

Earlier this week the Government announced that they were dropping their plans for the sell-off of public forests. The Minister said that this was in part due to the public outcry and opinion and also to the on-line petition that was signed by over half a million people in Britain. Those of you who did this have helped to show this Government and the world as a whole that if there are enough voices against something then those people in power will listen. There is still hope for our slowly eroding countryside and the wildlife found within it.

Below is an e-mail that was sent by The Woodland Trust to those of us that signed the petition;


`Save England's ancient forests It doesn't end here...
Whilst welcoming Government intentions to abandon plans for disposal of public forests, the campaign to protect and restore England's ancient forests must go on, warns the Woodland Trust.
We welcome the opportunity for a more considered approach to the future of our much loved woodlands but our campaign continues. Whilst we welcome the removal of threats to public access, there is still an acute need for better protection of Ancient Woodland, our equivalent of the rainforests, and restoration of ancient woods planted with conifers.
Even if there are no sales of publicly owned forests, the worst of all worlds would be for there to be no change to the loopholes that have allowed 850 ancient woods to be threatened by built development over the past decade. Ministers have made strong commitments over the past few weeks to increase protection for ancient woods, and we will be holding them to these commitments.
As I write, there is a proposal to water down protection for ancient woodland in the planning system. We need your help to defeat this proposal by 28th February.`


Please visit The Woodland Trust website to see what the future holds.

2 comments:

  1. Good for you John. I'm a real believer in this cause. I fear with the proposed budget cutting in Washington that our government is losing site of forest preservation and conservation as an essential priority.

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  2. Thanks Rebecca. I must admit, I had felt the same about our government, but I am happy to say that I have been proven wrong (in this case), maybe yours will suprise you too!
    J

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