Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support the Northern Ireland Executive to increase the level of woodland planting to match the rest of the UK.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are committed to increasing tree planting across the UK to 30,000 hectares per year by the end of this parliament.
Forestry policy is a devolved matter. Many sector organisations operate at UK level, and we continue to engage with the devolved administrations on these issues.
Northern Ireland Environment Minister Edwin Poots announced in 2020 the next stage of the Forests for our Future programme by launching a grant scheme to encourage and help landowners plant woodlands. This will help to meet Northern Ireland’s pledge to plant 18 million trees by 2030 and create 9,000 hectares of new woodland.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what environmental impact assessment has been undertaken on the proposed closure of Forestry England’s Wykeham nursery in Yorkshire.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Following a detailed review of future tree seedling supply needs, Forestry England proposes to close Wykeham nursery and to concentrate production at its Delamere nursery facilities. The nurseries exist primarily to supply trees for Forestry England; the closure at Wykeham will not impact upon current or future tree planting ambitions nationally or by Forestry England. The proposed closure does not require a formal Environmental Impact Assessment, though assessment of any future plans for usage of the site will need consideration under the relevant regulatory processes.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what tree planting targets were in place in each year since 2010; and how many hectares of tree planting took place in each of those years.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Between 2010 and 2015 there was no specific target for woodland creation. The 2015-17 Government committed to plant eleven million trees over the course of that Parliament, then assumed to run to 2020. The subsequent Government (2017-19) made the same commitment, together with another to plant one million trees in our towns and cities. The 2018 25 Year Environment Plan included an aspiration to increase woodland cover in England to 12% by 2060, through planting 180,000 hectares of new woodland by 2042. We have now committed to accelerate planting rates to 30,000 hectares per year across the UK by the end of this Parliament.
The Forestry Commission produces statistics on new planting of woodland for the UK. These are Official Statistics produced to meet the standards of the Code of Practice for Statistics, and can be found on the Forest Research web site together with background information at: https://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/tools-and-resources/statistics/forestry-statistics/
The area of new planting (woodland creation) for the UK and England in each year since 2010, taken from the published statistics is shown below.
New planting of woodland (thousands of hectares)
Year (ending 31 March) | New planting in England | New planting in the UK |
2010-11 | 2.53 | 9.10 |
2011-12 | 2.67 | 12.76 |
2012-13 | 2.59 | 10.79 |
2013-14 | 3.34 | 12.89 |
2014-15 | 2.43 | 10.30 |
2015-16 | 0.82 | 5.61 |
2016-17 | 1.15 | 6.52 |
2017-18 | 1.50 | 9.05 |
2018-19 | 1.42 | 13.54 |
2019-20 | 2.34 | 13.66 |
Source: Forestry Commission, Forestry England, Scottish Forestry, Forestry and Land Scotland, Natural Resources Wales, Forest Service, Welsh Government, grant schemes with estimates for areas newly planted without grant aid.
Asked by: Sarah Jones (Labour - Croydon Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Government's commitment to increase tree planting across the UK to 30,000 hectares per year by 2025 set out in the England Tree Strategy consultation document published in June 2020, how many trees have been planted to date; whether those trees are (a) whips or (b) adult trees; where he plans to plant trees in the future; whether he plans to plant trees in Croydon; who will be responsible for maintaining those trees; and which Minister is accountable for that programme.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Forestry Commission produces statistics on new planting of woodland for the UK. These are Official Statistics produced to meet the standards of the Code of Practice for Statistics and can be found on the Forest Research web site together with background information at: https://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/tools-and-resources/statistics/forestry-statistics/. The statistics are produced annually and show recorded new planting from administrative records and grant schemes with estimates for planting without grant aid. It is assumed nearly all the trees newly planted are whips with small stems or relatively small planting stock rather than larger trees.
The most recent statistics show there was 13,660 hectares of new planting (woodland creation) in the UK in 2019-20, of which 2,340 hectares were in England. At least a further 842 hectares have been reported as newly planted between 1 April 2020 and 31 December 2020 in England.
In addition, the Urban Tree Challenge Fund supports the planting of larger, ‘standard’, trees outside of woodlands in England. The Fund supported the planting of 7,630 standard trees in 2019-20 and 11,839 standard trees in 2020-21. Of these, 734 were planted in Croydon.
Grant schemes are demand led so it is not generally possible to state where the trees will be newly planted, although a range of sensitivities will prevent permission to plant being granted in some locations. We are aware of plans to plant a further 66 standards trees in 2021-22 in Croydon supported by the Urban Tree Challenge Fund. Additional planting will be dependent on future applications.
The maintenance of new trees and woodland is usually the responsibility of the grant agreement holder and the grant award includes a contribution to costs to ensure successful establishment of the newly planted trees.
The Minister who has forestry in his portfolio and is accountable for the programme is Lord Goldsmith.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with representatives of Wakefield Council on ash dieback in that local authority area.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Forestry Commission is engaged with Wakefield Council through their Arboricultural Officer in the planning team. The Officer attended a Tree Health event in January which was run by the Forestry Commission in partnership with Sheffield City Council, Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust and Amey. The event focused on a number of tree health issues including Ash Dieback, woodland resilience and future species choice.
On 12 March 2021 Defra announced the Local Authority Treescapes Fund to increase tree planting and natural regeneration in local communities. £2.7 million will be available this year (2021/22), building the pipeline of projects for community planting in future years. The fund is part of the Government’s Nature for Climate Fund. Local authorities can apply for funding to build back greener from the pandemic and will target landscapes that have been ecologically damaged or affected by tree diseases like ash dieback.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of including fast-growing Sequoia and Giant Redwood trees in the Government’s tree planting and climate change programmes.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK has a robust and widely welcomed forestry standard in place – the UK Forestry Standard. This is the UK governments’ guide to sustainable forestry. It is based on international scientific evidence. The relevant public authority in each UK country assesses woodland creation proposals against this standard before giving approval to such schemes. This robust regulatory framework provides a high level of scrutiny to protect landscapes and the wider environment to ensure the right tree is planted in the right place for the right reason.
Both species are included in the Ecological Site Classification Decision Support System to aid the selection of species suited to site conditions. It is accessible online via a web browser to help guide forest managers and planners to select ecologically suited species to sites.
There is some limited experience of growing both species in British conditions. The Coast Redwood is available from some forest nurseries and is being used by Forestry England on land they manage.
Asked by: Baroness Fookes (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to provide written guidance (1) to informal organisations, and (2) to individuals, about the suitability of trees for planting according to (a) habitat, (b)(i) carbon, and (ii) pollution, control, and (c) the encouragement of (i) insects, and (ii) other forms of animal life.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The United Kingdom Forestry Standard (UKFS) is publicly available and is relevant to all those with an interest in UK forests and woodlands. It outlines the context for forestry and sets out the approach of the UK governments to multi-purpose sustainable forest management, which includes defining standards and requirements. Tree planting could be for amenity and recreation, to help in the fight against climate change, improve habitat including soil and water, help biodiversity, manage and enhance historic environment, or for timber production. A series of Practice Guides support the Standard and new guides on riparian woodland management and climate change adaptation are forthcoming.
Those interested in planting trees for carbon sequestration and to help battle climate change can access guidance on the need to incorporate the effects of climate change into woodland design and management. Forest Research also provide the ecological site classification which helps inform appropriate tree species choices by site.
The Forestry Commission continues to refine and improve the environmental protection measures and processes for woodland creation by assisting the planning and planting of woodlands in lower risk areas of England. Last year the Forestry Commission updated the Low Risk Map for woodland creation to better represent the distribution of best and most versatile agricultural land and introduce a buffer for all Sites of Special Scientific Interest. This map will continue to be reviewed and updated as further information becomes available.
The Forestry Commission also published priority habitat guidance. This provides an overview of priority habitats, their definitions, and includes characteristic plants and their associated national vegetation communities.
The Forestry Commission will also be publishing guidance on Woodland Creation Design and Natural Colonisation.
Asked by: Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the (1) availability, and (2) efficacy, of sustainable alternatives to the plastic tube tree guards that are used for planting young trees.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
Plastic tree guards have been used for new woodland creation as they are highly effective in helping the establishment of new trees, which must be protected from deer and rabbits if they are to survive.
There are other options for protecting young trees including biodegradable tree guards, temporary fencing and wildlife management, but currently these options are less effective than plastic tree guards in deterring browsers, particularly Deer.
The forestry sector is carrying out work to develop, and trial more effective biodegradable tree guards and the aim should be to get to a place where these are used as a matter of course - the forthcoming England tree strategy will look at how to support this.
In the meantime, current practice demands that tree guards should be retrieved after they have reached a point where they are redundant. Plans to collect and recycle the tree guards have been introduced by a number of forestry institutions.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to tackle climate change.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK is committed to taking ambitious, far-reaching action to tackle climate change and meet net zero; this legally binding target requires the UK to bring all greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. Defra is playing its part in contributing to this.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy leads across Government on climate change mitigation and net zero and Defra is the Government lead for climate change adaptation. Defra is responsible for efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the following sectors: agriculture, waste, land-use and fluorinated gases (F-gases). It also has responsibility for promoting forestry in order to capture carbon.
The ambitious 25 Year Environment Plan (25 YEP) committed to leave the environment in a better state than we found it. Mitigating and adapting to climate change is one of the ten goals in the 25 YEP. Actions include:
However, adapting to the inevitable changes in our climate is also vital. Whilst we continue to reduce our contribution to climate change, we are also taking robust action to improve the resilience of our people, economy and environment, this includes:
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of progress on meeting the target of 11 million trees planted in England by 2022.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Forestry Commission produces Official Statistics on new planting of woodland. The previous government set a target to plant 11 million trees with central government support in England in the period from 2017 to 2022, and the latest interim report shows that 5,036 hectares of land, equating to about 8,286,000 trees, were newly planted in the 3.5 years from April 2017 to September 2020, on track to achieve that target. The statistics are available here: Government supported new planting of trees in England: Interim update for the half year April to September 2020
The current government has committed to increase tree planting to 30,000 hectares per year by 2025, across the whole UK. This is in line with the rate recommended by the Climate Change Committee and reflects the role trees can play in combating climate change.