It also aids efforts towards reforesting areas, storing carbon and restoring biodiversity.
A novel approach to combine food production with carbon sequestration, biodiversity and conservation goals
Reforesting the Glens of Scotland |
Reforesting the Glens of Scotland
Inoculating native trees with an edible mushroom can produce more protein per hectare than pasture-raised beef.
It also aids efforts towards reforesting areas, storing carbon and restoring biodiversity. A novel approach to combine food production with carbon sequestration, biodiversity and conservation goals
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‘Every tree counts’: Dutch come up with cunning way to create forests for free.
In a clearing in the Amsterdamse Bos, a forest on the outskirts of the Dutch capital, is a “tree hub” where hundreds of saplings, among them hazelnut, sweet cherry, field maple, beech, chestnut and ash, are organised by type. The idea behind it is simple: every day unwanted tree saplings were being cleared and thrown away when those young trees could be carefully collected and transplanted to where they are wanted. Volunteers have already collected thousands of saplings cleared from woodland paths and those unlikely to survive in the forest shade. On Saturday, on donate a seedling day, people will be encouraged to take unwanted saplings or cuttings from their own gardens and give them to 200 tree hub locations across the Netherlands. This winter, Meer Bomen Nu (More Trees Now) aims to give away 1m young trees to farmers, councils and landowners. The small Dutch foundation hopes this circular practice will become commonplace across northern Europe. This is a really depressing article about the lack of tree planting in England, which imports 80% of its timber, yet Scotland plants 10 times as many trees per head, and is well-placed to meet its target to deliver 18,000 hectares of new trees.
The main planting activity highlighted here is non-native Sitka spruce. Pledges to plant trees fall from politicians’ lips like leaves in the autumn, especially during elections and climate summits. Booming demand means that nurseries are already running out of trees, barely weeks into the planting season, according to the Horticultural Trades Association. And a shortage of workers needed to grow, replant and nurture healthy trees has been made worse by Brexit and under-investment in workforce training, according to the Institute of Chartered Foresters (ICF). Planting has declined steadily from an average of about 25,000 hectares a year in 1989 to about 10,000 by 2010, according to the House of Commons library. Even the 2015 target of planting 11 million trees – about 5,000 hectares – by 2020 - was missed. The target keeps dropping, and tree planting keeps declining. As COP26 starts, it is clear that Westminster is more interested in soundbites than climate change action. |
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