Planting Trees – are we running the bath with the plug out?

It is fashionable these days to plant trees in the name of saving the planet, but as I was watching someone take down a tree recently, that process has made me ask, how much unrecorded deforestation is currently going on in the UK, and my findings have surprised me.

Trees:

Between 2001 and 2021 the UK lost 105,000 hectares (ha) of woodland and forest cover in the UK, which is 6.9% of the total, and that is excluding any public sector losses. In the same period, circa 218,000 ha of tree planting has been done.?? This amounts to a net of 113,000 ha extra coverage, or allowing for 1 tree per 2 square meters ???circa 565 million trees. Whilst 1 tree will sequest approximately 1 tonne of carbon over the next 50 years, this is great.? However, I do find it alarming that we have lost the 105,000 ha, or based on the same ratios, 525 million trees. Surely this needs controlling? ?Do we need greater constraints on tree removal?? Because as we are planting trees - which is great - it does feel like we are running the bath with the plug out!

I find this particularly interesting, as before Christmas I finished working on a major landscape project helping to screen new infrastructure in the Nation’s interest. In order to facilitate that construction, existing trees have been removed, but in the specialist planning that was required through the Secretary of State and a Development Consent Order, 4 new trees had to be planted for every 1 tree removed.

If we had used this ratio of replacing 4 trees for every 1 tree removed, this would mean that over 2 billion trees should have been planted for the 525 million that were removed nationwide.? However, this just includes trees being removed in the countryside and does not include other offenders such as:

1.????? Infrastructure:

·???????? Defence and Security, including Police

·???????? Telecommunications

·???????? Emergency Services

·???????? Energy

·???????? Water

·???????? Government – Local and National

·???????? Transport – road and rail

·???????? Education

·???????? Quarrying and Mining

·???????? Health

Within all these estate domains, vegetation is being removed on a daily basis in the name of “Maintenance”, but we have no transparency over what has been removed. Yes, it is critical that vegetation does not impact the safety of the infrastructure and its users, but in the majority of cases what is being removed is not being replaced. This is especially ironic as the Government owns 1.5% of the UK landmass or 343,500 million Ha (hectares) through Ministry of Defence (MOD)….so why do we need to plant trees on food growing farm land that will give us food security. Surely it is the Government’s responsibility to replace the vegetation that is removed across infrastructure sites onto its MOD sites thereby maintaining the UK level of vegetation and carbon sequestration. The problem is that it will cost the Government money which they will shy away from!

2.????? Tree Surgeons:

Tree Surgeons probably account for one of the largest sources of unrecorded de-vegetation and there is no control. Trees are predominantly being removed due to concerns around maintenance, security and space, not only in the residential sector but in the commercial sector as well. No matter whether this tree work is deemed necessary for maintenance, security or space, it is still de-vegetation and it needs to be accounted for. We need to understand the scale of the de-vegetation and as a consequence, the size of the issue, because I believe we are inadvertently not even breaking even on the amount we are planting compared to what we are removing. If for every tree that is removed 4 trees have to be re-planted, we would make a significant impact.? And I believe that those who are having the trees removed should pay for the replanting – where? – simple it needs to be done on the Government’s own MOD land rather than sacrifice food growing farm land to ensure UK food security. This the most important element.

3.????? Construction

Because construction is so intertwined with the success of the economy, the industry gets away with environmental murder, and even with the introduction of the Environmental Act 2021 it doesn’t go anywhere near far enough to protect the environment.? ??In fact, the Act lets construction companies and house builders completely off the hook by allowing them to buy credits miles away and in some cases hundreds of miles away from the site that is being built. Construction companies and house builders must be held accountable to the site they are developing to show a Bio Diversity Net Gain on the site rather than elsewhere.

4.????? British Consumerism

This is much more subtle and less obvious. ??Consumerism is causing mass de-vegetation, not only in this country but abroad. Whether it is the de-vegetation caused by the burning of Amazon rain forests to grow soya for vegetarian foods, or it is the deforestation in east Africa to grow cocoa plants for chocolate……the list goes on. Yes, soya does go into animal feeds but animal feed companies are more switched on to the environmental effect of soya, and are using other sources of protein to replace soya.

Hedges:

Finally let’s talk about hedges. Whilst trees take the headlines, hedges are a major opportunity to not only sequest carbon, but also to increase habitat for wildlife, native birds and insects.

The UK Government say that 75 years ago there was 1.4 million km of hedgerow in the UK, today we have 700,000 km, we have lost 50% of our hedgerows rurally.? But before everyone starts on a rampage against British Agriculture, those removals were driven by Governmental Policy post war to ensure that the UK food supply chains were secure into the future, although sadly the lessons for the requirements of food security have been forgotten over the mists of time.

A hedgerow can sequest circa 700 kgs of carbon per km of hedge per 20 years, and over 75 years this is a loss of circa the equivalent 1,960,000 tonnes of carbon removed from the atmosphere! NB this is purely farm land and doesn’t include hedges removed elsewhere as listed above.

I think these hedgerow statistics are quite concerning and I am not sure why this amount of hedge wasn’t replaced in the 80s, when the guidelines should have been to replace removed hedges on at least a like for like basis.? However, there is still the opportunity to plant literally thousands of kms of hedges around the UK countryside. ?It should also be noted that current UK legislation stipulates that if 20m of hedge or less is being removed there is no need to seek the relevant permissions from authorities, but also, there is a lack of clarity about of how that 20m is defined. This de-vegetation is shockingly bad.? Perhaps we need to consider our hedgerow strategy more carefully.

In conclusion, if we stand back from all this, the question is…. What impact is the current tree planting trend having on building a positive impact on the environment and the sequestration of carbon? ?The answer to this is…. Not as much as we are led to believe.? Primarily, due to the lack of recording and auditing of the removal of vegetation. This means the planting that is being done is having a lot less of an impact environmentally than it should due to all the removals which are happening through stealth.?

Let’s think about putting the plug in before we fill the bath!