The right trees in the right places

Planting trees is very fashionable these days, and most people think it is good conservation practice. Aside from replacing what our ancestors felled, there is also a halo of virtue because of carbon capture and global warming. Like all such fashions, however, there are specific considerations that can make a big difference to how much good is being done.

Those who say that we are only restoring what our ancestors destroyed should take a long look at the pollen record; in previous interglacial periods there is little tree pollen. It is almost certainly the case that the post-glacial history of dense woodland over most of the UK is man-made. As the ice retreated, a growing