Articles

Views from the SOW team and guest contributors.

If you would like to see your article published on Save Our Woods, please get in touch, we’d love to know your opinion too.

Dr Oliver Rackham

16.02.2015

When Karen, Nick and I first began Save Our Woods way back in Jan 2011 I’m not sure we knew who Oliver Rackham was. We soon learned and it was an honour to receive a message from him offering his support for and wisdom to our campaign. In amongst the scrum and racket of the […]

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SUCCESS! Public Forests to be named as exempt in the Infrastructure Bill!

06.11.2014

It’s with great joy that we can tell you that Government will produce an amendment that will exempt our Public Forest Estate from the Infrastructure Bill.  In two weeks time, at the third and final reading of the bill in the House of Lords before it goes to the House of Commons, we will see […]

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‘Crystal clear’ commitment from Govt made in new ministerial statement. So lets see it crystal clear in the Infrastructure Bill..

05.11.2014

As expected and warned about in my last post Lord Ahmed has published a Ministerial Statement (this is not law, this is just a written statement) that gives Government’s commitments not to transfer any part of our public forests to the Homes and Communities Agency (while the land remains in its ownership – whatever that means?) and they […]

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HOUSE OF LORDS: EXEMPT FORESTS FROM THE INFRASTRUCTURE BILL

05.11.2014

Over 140, 000 people have signed a 38 Degrees petition to exempt our publicly owned forests from being transferred for development – again.   This should send a message loud and clear to members of the House of Lords who are debating today whether or not to include an exemption for our public forests in the appalling […]

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Parliament’s New Chainsaw – Petition to fight the Infrastructure Bill

28.10.2014
Thumbnail image for Parliament’s New Chainsaw – Petition to fight the Infrastructure Bill

Hands Off Our Forest and SoW have been asked by many, many people to create a petition to help fight the worrying Infrastructure bill. So here it is! Please do have a read, sign and share. Thank you!  Save Our Forests and Public Land, Amend or Scrap the Infrastructure Bill! ‘PARLIAMENT’S NEW CHAINSAW: The Infrastructure Bill poses […]

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Infrastructure Bill debate on Nov 5th – Join activists for day of action!

27.10.2014
Thumbnail image for Infrastructure Bill debate on Nov 5th – Join activists for day of action!

  Update from HOOF – www.facebook.com/groups/infrastructurebill We have now heard that Clause 21 of the Infrastructure Bill (re public land transfers) will be debated and voted on in the Lords on NOVEMBER 5. We don’t have long to stop this. We are calling on everyone to lobby Lords to ask them to back the amendment […]

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Parliament’s New Chainsaw – The Infrastructure Bill

18.10.2014

UPDATE: Due to many requests for a petition we have created one which you can find here: SAVE OUR FORESTS & PUBLIC LAND! Amend or Scrap the destructive Infrastructure Bill Please sign and share! Thank you.   Article by Owen Adams of Hands Off Our Forest (HOOF)  DID you know legislation is currently being pushed […]

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“Nice Shelving, Where was it Grown?” – Grown in Britain

16.08.2014

 by Pip Howard   Whilst proper protection of the English Public Forest Estate still remains in the doldrums, and will do so until the promised legislation is forthcoming, there has been tremendous progress on peripheral issues. For whatever reason (and most of us have become far too cynical based on experience), the Government simply refused […]

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Stock Wood – An Ancient, Oak Woodland Through the Seasons

14.08.2014

Tweet

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Don’t Frack the Rich – Notes from a Devonian Dumping-Ground

08.08.2014

by Peter Howard   The concession by the UK government that fracking for shale gas would only take place in National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the most exceptional circumstances has been seen by some as a cowardly refusal to implement a complete ban in Protected Areas. However, it is more a […]

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Fungi, what would our woods be like without them?

04.08.2014

by arborist Antony Croft    Ancient Beech with Aurantiporus fissilis   Fungi, what would our woods be like without them? The simple answer is they would not be there! It is remarkable to a mycologist that this concept is not more widely known or appreciated. Trees and Fungi are linked together at the cellular level, […]

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Forest Vision – Transforming the Forestry Commission

08.07.2014

Review by Pip Howard Early into the campaign against the Public Forest Estate sell off plans by the Coalition government, it became clear that many in the media, particularly many newspaper columnists, were drastically out of date with regards their viewpoint on the Forestry Commission, indeed continually around 20 – 30 years out of date. […]

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It’s time to get the draft forestry legislation into the public domain for debate.

06.02.2014

We need to know what the proposed safeguards against the privatisation and exploitation of our English public forests are. Will this Government take the risk in the build up to the General Election and put the draft forestry bill into parliament for public scrutiny? If they believed in the current offering from DEFRA and the Forestry Commission, why on earth wouldn’t they?

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Public Forest Estate – an update

28.01.2014

As the long grass turns to scrub, the big question hanging on our lips this past 3 YEARS is ‘what will Government DO with our Public Forest Estate?’

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Tree Planting Grants Suspended

14.11.2013

It has just emerged that there will be no Government grants for planting new woodlands in 2014 and 2015. The result of transitional arrangements towards new European grants under the Rural Development Programme, the suspension has apparently been limited in Scotland and Wales – but not in England.

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Exmoor Society – Woodland Report Published

22.10.2013

The inherent value and huge potential of trees, woods and forests on Exmoor has been revealed in an authoritative report which has just been released by the Silvanus Trust and Laura Jones Associates.

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Forestry expert speaks out on proposals for our public forests

10.09.2013

Forestry expert, Rod Leslie, warns against an uprising from the grassroots if Govt gets it wrong over our public forests

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England’s largest environmental NGOs voice concern over new proposals for our public forests

10.09.2013

England’s largest environmental NGOs voice concern over new proposals for our public forests

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Forestry Commission for the Future: e-Petition Launched!

25.08.2013

    The Forestry Commission (FC) has provided Great Britain with a verdant rich tapestry of woods and forests enjoyed by the public for nearly 100 years.  The UK Government, however, is about to embark on an exercise to set up new bodies – breaking up and tearing the heart out of the FC. We […]

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Forestry in the House of Lords again

18.07.2013

HANSARD – Forestry: Independent Panel Report. Question, Asked by Baroness Royall of Blaisdon

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