10 signatures reached
To: The UK & Northern Ireland Government.
Trees for Britain. Project Tree.
Force the UK and Northern Ireland government to put a new scheme in place which allows each council in the UK to plant at least one new woodland. One new woodland in each town and/or city accross the UK. They should be fenced off and protected, allowed to grow and accessible to people.
Why is this important?
This is important because the UK is one of the least wooded countries within the whole of Europe. The country was completly covered in trees when the first people arrived. Now only 13% of our land area is wooded. Woodland is the naturally occuring habitat for this country. Fields, wildflowers, breakland and heathland although great for wildlife are habitats that arose in the abscense of our woodlands. Without woodlands on our east coast the land is being lost to the sea due to erosion. Without woodlands in our uplands the soil and wildlife are suffering amd floods downstream in our urban areas are rife. Most of the UK' indigenous biodiversity resides in our wooded areas because that is the natural habitat they would have had in this country before the great clearances of the forests. Surely for a country which is naturally of woodland habitat it is the duty of the Government to make sure there is plenty of this rich habitat left and that it expands.
-Woodlands hold our greatest biodiversity.
-Woodlands act as a windbreak (when enough of them) so should reduce effects of wind on urban areas.
-They are brilliant places for people to escape to.
-Trees help give us clean air and beautify the landscape.
-They slow down and in some cases prevent soil erosion.
-Trees help to prevent flooding by slowing down the process of water falling as rain getting to the sea.
I believe if this cannot be done then the east coast of the country should at least be focused on. We loose meters of land a year to the North sea on the Holderness coast due to soil erosion. Houses cant be built on the cliffs, its a danger for people to be there. With the addition of trees the soil wound be bound together, it would be less saturated and as a result erosion would be a fraction of the rate it is now.
