Tree planting: is there a better way?

Before the Chancellor stands up to deliver his autumn statement at lunchtime today, I thought I'd return to the crisis facing ash trees.  We are expecting Defra to announce their ash dieback control plan soon and it seemed a good opportunity to reflect on some lessons that need to be learnt.

I have just read this excellent article by my former colleague, Andy Byfield of Plantlife here.

Andy carefully guides us through the pitfalls of woodland planting. We at the RSPB have always been firm advocates that the focus should be on quality, and not just quantity of trees in the ground. Which was why we were pleased that the Independent Panel on Forestry supported this approach too.

The RSPB, like many other major woodland owners, have planted a lot of trees. This includes significant numbers of ash trees at reserves such as RSPB Wood of Cree and RSPB Brading Marshes on the Isle of Wight. 

So what lessons can we learn from ash dieback?

In some cases we rely on natural regeneration to expand woodland or source trees grown on our reserve, such as RSPB Abernethy. However, larger projects often mean we have to use external suppliers too. When this happens we ask our reserves to use local provenance.  Trees sold for forestry purposes are regulated to ensure that buyers are able to identify which area they originated from (e.g. where seed was collected).  Knowing this local “provenance” means buyers can choose the trees best suited for their site.  However, buying a tree derived from a UK source does not guarantee that the tree has not at some point in its life been outside the country.

Seed collected in the UK is exported to nurseries on the continent where it is grown for a number of years before being imported back into the UK as small trees. There is nothing illegal about this practice but equally there is no obligation for suppliers to label their products to let buyers know that this has happened. This makes it unnecessarily difficult to prove that a tree grown from locally sourced UK seed has also been grown here. It is possible the RSPB may have unwittingly planted UK provenance seed that was grown elsewhere. This is just one of the lessons to take away from the ash dieback epidemic.

So what is the RSPB doing about it? Well a number of things actually:

1.  We have stopped all ash tree planting until further notice.

2.  We are pushing for the government and forestry sector to tighten up the traceability and controls regarding the sale and movement of forestry products. We are also pushing for the Chalara control strategy, due any day now, to properly address biosecurity issues

3.  We would like to see clearer labelling at the point of sale so that you and I can make more informed decisions about the products we buy. 

4.  We are tightening up our reserves policy on tree sourcing to try to ensure that any trees we buy in the future are locally sourced and also grown in the UK. This will require government to help by improving confidence in traceability from seed all the way to final planting site.

So - lots to learn and lots still to do.

Oh and while you are still reading - what do you think the Chancellor will announce today in his autumn statement?  More money to invest in nature and our future prosperity?

We'll find out soon enough.