Opinion and Editorial

Views from the SOW team and guest writers.

If you have ideas and articles to share, get in touch, we’d love to know your opinion too.

What future for England’s public forests and woodlands?

16.07.2011

David Sulman of the UK Forest Products Association comments on the current situation.
What does the future hold for England’s public woodlands and forests?

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The Ramblers response to the Forestry Panels ‘Call for Views’

07.07.2011

The Ramblers response to the Forestry Panels Call for Views. Published exclusively on SoW.

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Response to ‘Why Trees & Woods Matter’: Progression or Regression for UK Forest landscapes?

19.06.2011

Soil expert & silvaculturist Pip Howard challenges the Woodland Trust supported report; ‘The Importance of Trees and Woods’ from think tank ResPublica…

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PUBLIC OWNERSHIP: The elephant in the room

17.06.2011

Forest of Dean campaigner Owen Adams explores why public ownership of our woodlands and forests matters.

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UK Government Opposes EU Sustainable Forestry Mandate

14.06.2011

Will UK government be the source of a rot that will completely destroy hopes for a pan European legal framework for sustainable forest management?

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I thought I’d lost our trees…

30.05.2011

Hen imagines our British Isles without The Oak to make it whole… Phytophthora Ramorum

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A Participative Landscape Contract: lessons for the Forestry Panel from Europe

27.05.2011

Alex Lockwood explores our connection to our landscape as a whole and discusses the values of the European Landscape Convention. Posing important questions to the Forestry Panel.
“The public have a right to be concerned with what happens to their own landscape & be involved in decisions affecting it”

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When will the Independent Panel hear views from residents and local businesses?

16.05.2011

Woodlands and forests are not isolated parcels of land to be covered in cling film in perpetuity: just to satiate the (sometimes over zealous) thirst of conservationists who seem to forget that these areas have living, breathing, working communities who will be in the front line of any changes to the management of their woods […]

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The Decline of Traditional Skills and Our English Hedgerows

14.04.2011

Both the hedgerow and those that can build, plant and maintain them are in decline. This is in spite of their being quintessential attributes in the English landscape…

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Access all areas? by Sarah Walters

31.03.2011

Sarah Walters, Alvecote Wood, shares her thoughts on the effects of public access to her private woodland.

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The Forestry Panels’ first meeting

30.03.2011

This Forestry Panel wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the recent, extraordinary, public outcry. We can’t think of one reason their work shouldn’t be transparent…

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Analysis of Rod Leslies’ Forests for the Future paper

21.03.2011

Analysis of retired Forestry Commission, head of policy, Rod Leslies’ paper – Forests of the Future.

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The Independent Panel

09.03.2011

“we are now setting up an independent panel on forestry that will consider the whole future direction of policy for England’s woods and forests.” Lord Henley, House of Lords Forest debate In a week or two the chairman of the independent panel will be announced, shortly afterwards the names of those on the panel will be released. […]

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Dr Oliver Rackham joins the discussion in the Future of our Woodlands

08.03.2011

We are incredibly lucky to be able to share with you a correspondence from Dr Oliver Rackham, OBE, a leading authority on trees and woodlands.

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A Strategy for Urban Trees by Dr John Flannigan

04.03.2011

Our deep connection to trees has been irrefutably acknowledged during the campaign to protect our Public Forest Estate. We’re honoured that Dr John Flannigan has agreed for SOW to publish his article ‘A Strategy for Urban Trees’.

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Forests for the Future by Rod Leslie

02.03.2011

We are very lucky to share with you this paper written by Rod Leslie, former head of policy at the Forestry Commission, where he discusses the facts and creates a strong vision for our publicly owned forests

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SOW Briefing for Westminster Debate on the Future of the FC

01.03.2011

Save Our Woods issued this briefing in advance of the Westminster Debate on the Future of the Forestry Commission on 1st march 2011.

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How will the public voice be heard on the independent panel?

24.02.2011

SOW believes there should be a public representative to witness the proceedings of the “independent” panel and that the public should have a voice in the panels discussions on the future of our Public Forest Estate.

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