44 Million trees !

This has got to be good for the planet..
http://allafrica.com/stories/201010120417.html

 

True..


But this might not be....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/co...s-plan-huge-sell-off-of-Britains-forests.html

 

Interesting post, but Im often sceptical about these sorts of stories. When the 'green' isues started to come to light, especially carbon footprints, all these companies suddenly appeared saying what they would do if you gave them money...ie; 'we will plant 10,000 trees and you'll be doing your bit for the environment' type thing, but it wasnt always effective planting. For instance, planting 1000 trees in one area is not the same as another; growth rates play a major part - the colder the area, the slower the plants grow and often they didnt grow quick enough to compensate the carbon they were meant to be off-setting.

In this post, 44 million trees sounds good but how many will fail due to lack of water - nutrient defeciency in poor soils - getting chopped down as the grow for fuel and firewood, etc etc?

It may seem as though Im a grumpy old humbug here(! Honest Im not!!) but with the experience I have in these industries I tend to be sceptical.
On many occasions the idea is a good one but the actual outcome varies dramatically to what was expected.

 

I can remember after the big storm in 1987, the council around here went crazy planting trees in all kinds of places, and about three ft apart.

The result is what amounts to total thickets in all kinds of places that really should be thinned out but nobody bothers.

And as a side line have you noticed all the "trees" they plant on motorway embankments etc.

They rarely reach a decent height before they get cut down for one reason or another, and most are actually shrubs.

 

Too true Marley, mind you dont get a warning.:D

 

:D

 

We did actually, the kids brought it home from school, it was a grafted silver birch, it had twin trunks and grew quickly to about 30ft with very little spread, but died after about 25 years. Shame, 'cos we really liked it. You can see it in the left hand corner near the bottom of the garden in this photo taken in 1985.