Fernando Torres can kick a ball about and is worth £50m, apparently.
40,000ha of England's forests, that's 40,000 football pitches, are worth £100m.
Are our values quite right?
A love of the natural world demonstrates that a person is a cultured inhabitant of planet Earth.
Red kite has used the phrase that came to mind when I read the sell off consultation. The greenest government ever! If the Government wants to live up to its own hype what should it do with 'our' forests? I would suggest that over a fair bit of the FC estate it should apply the polluter pays principle and use timber incomes to restore both PAWS (plantations on ancient woodland sites) and the same with former lowland heathland and lowland bogs that has been 'polluted' with non native conifers. The FC has the staff with the skills and the knowledge to do this, it just needs the commitment. Why should conservation charities pick up the tab for sorting out the damage that has been done to our native woodland and heathland heritage. The ancient woods and restored heathland could then be managed with the NNRs by a combined FC/NE. FC's commercial tree farms that cannot be restored to important wildlife habitats can be sold to private forestry companies, community groups or others but with existing access arrangements maintained.
Think all our values are wrong,should one footballers wages =wages of over 600 nurses saving lives.
I am not going to get into hectares and acres!! but I do so agree with Nightjar and the examples he gives of forests/plantations planted originally planted on prime heathland (or chalk grassland). The FC made a committment, I am sure with the previous government's agreement, and before this present government came to power, to restore such sites to their original open heath or grassland state. It would be a disgrace if, with all there talk of being the "Greenest Government ever", they were not to honour that FC committment. Surely this government is not going to perpetuate the ecological errors of the past or are they?
redkite
Hi Mark
Thanks for your kind offer - Yes! I am happy with the draw.
Cheers - Peter
Mark, You have obviously stumbled on the answer to the Government's financial worries - buy a couple of teenage footballers now and sell them for 50m in a few years time.
The Cotswold Water park sightings website
My Flicker page