We ❤ Trees (and Hedgerows)!!!

One of our major concerns over development around our countryside is the widespread removal and decimation of mature trees and hedgerows.

During the building of 149 dwellings on Sterry Close / Ash Farm, Mansfield Road, we saw the removal of 700 meters of hedgerow right before our eyes, that too, hundreds of trees were also consumed.

Derbyshire Wildlife Trust raised concerns over the depletion of those mixed mature hedgerows and advised the developers to replace the hedgerows at a rate of 2:1 for the reasons of flood prevention, biodiversity and landscape features. It was given that this would not be possible, an arrangement was agreed at 360m – we see no evidence of mixed hedgerows that were promised.

Hedgerows:

• Are brilliant in preventing soil erosion and they protect dwellings from flooding
• Provide fundamental form and features to our landscape
• Are tangible, traditional features of our countryside
• Sustain pollinators (as we know, pollinators do a fantastic job in providing the food we eat)
• Generate oxygen to the air that we breathe
• Embrace biodiversity and sustain populations of small birds, field and bank voles, hedgehogs (endangered), amphibians, the list goes on . . . .

 

Without mature, mixed hedgerows, we see terrible things happening in our countryside:

One metre of hedgerow can intercept and uptake 40 – 80 L of water per day!

Biodiversity disappears, historic boundaries are lost and the shape and form of our countryside is lost forever.

Mature mixed broadleaf trees:

• One mature tree can generate enough O2 PER DAY for 4 people
• One mature tree can uptake 50 – 100 Gallons of water PER DAY
• One mature tree can absorb 48lbs of CO2 (you know, that nasty stuff that contributes to global warming) PER YEAR
• Are primary producers and provide mass biodiversity
• And are homes to bats, to small and large birds including owls and a whole host of species.

 

Tree planting is at its ALL TIME LOW in 40 years!! 😦

The government has stated a CO2 reduction by 80% by 2050 . . . . .. How is this going to be fulfilled?

Where is the ethics in this . .  You can be arrested for protecting a tree from being felled, but during the financial crash in 2008, corrupt bankers were not arrested by the government, but were bailed out!  . . . the world has gone mad!

 

“If all insects were to disappear from earth, within 50 years, all life on earth would end. If all human life were to disappear from earth, within 50 years, all forms of life would flourish” Jonas Salk