Tim Bonner: Tree planting - the lessons of history

One of the most common responses to the lessons of history is to ignore them, which is why many of us who love the wilder places in these islands start to twitch when politicians start talking about planting trees. You might remember that during last year's General Election (it is extraordinary to think that it was less than four months ago) there was something of a bidding war on tree planting. The Conservatives started with tens of millions, Labour rapidly got into the billions and from there I am not sure where we ended up, other than it was not quite certain there was enough room on our islands for all the tree planting that Westminster was going to direct.

Trees, it seems, could answer what was considered one of the great political challenges of that distant time before, before COVID-19 took over our lives: how to address public concerns about the environment. Trees were a simple signal that you cared about the environment, about climate change and about the countryside, and surely no-one can object to tree planting? The Natural Capital Committee has, however, warned this week that mass tree planting could harm the environment if not planned properly, with one member making the critical point: "the mantra has to be 'the right tree in the right place'."

If only there had been a similar conversation in the Conservative government of the 1980s, when a scheme allowing woodland investment to be written off against personal income tax was introduced. Forestry rapidly became a favourite industry to invest in, leading to a boom in tree planting. Wealthy businessmen, showbusiness celebrities and sporting personalities ploughed cash into creating vast forests in Scotland. But these forests were not a recreation or regeneration of the remnants of Caledonian Forest, which had once covered much of Scotland. They were, and are, a monoculture of commercial, non-native spruce and pine. Not only were they the wrong trees, but in many cases they were planted in entirely the wrong places, doing huge damage to sensitive habitats and creating a sterile environment conducive to a limited number of species including deer, crow and fox which themselves impacted on neighbouring habitats.

If you want to understand the full disaster of this government-inspired tree planting, it is worth a visit to the RSPB's Forsinard Flows reserve in Caithness, where thousands of acres of the unique flow country were covered in commercial forestry during the 80s tree planting boom. Much of that forestry was subsequently bought by the RSPB who have been diligently, and at huge expense, returning the flows to their previous state. It is not even possible to remove the timber that has grown in the last 30 years without doing even more damage so each and every tree is smashed back into the bog in an operation that defines pointlessness.

The concern about central government's latest foray into tree planting is that, like the tax avoidance policy of the 80s, those who make the decisions will be long gone before the full consequences become clear. The NCC is right that any planting must be of the right tree in the right place, but there is also a range of other questions which were studiously avoided by politicians on the election trail. These include whether the UK's current deer population is compatible with such huge tree planting ambitions. Regeneration projects in the highlands of Scotland have seen a massive reduction in deer numbers through culling. Replicating this reduction in lowland England where deer populations are at an all-time high and landholding tends to be much more complex will be a huge challenge. Then there is the question of whether we should be 'planting' tress at all rather than simply creating woodland to regenerate naturally. And of course, there is the absolute necessity of ensuring that important landscapes are not lost forever under a dark canopy of commercial conifer forestry, which still remains a threat, despite the lessons of history.

When the world starts to return to a hint of normality it will be incumbent on all of us to ensure that in 30 or 40 years' time, our children do not look at ruined landscapes and ask, as we do now, 'how on earth did they allow that to happen?'.