Sir, With more homes and businesses using wood as a fuel there is an opportunity to harvest unmanaged woodlands (“Millions more trees will be felled to fan flames of the wood-burner revolution”, June 29), but there is a wider environmental issue here.
Wood burning can be sustainable, and better management of woodlands across the UK will create space for birds and other wildlife. But a big increase of wood fuel, known as biomass, in our power stations could cause ecological and climate disaster.
There is an EU target for 20 per cent of Europe’s energy to be produced from renewable sources by 2020, and more than half of that is forecast to come from biomass. There are about 30 large biomass power stations proposed in the UK so far, which would have a combined appetite of 23 million tonnes of wood. That’s well over double what the UK already produces, meaning that this will be an industry supplied by imported wood.
There are no rules on sourcing this fuel responsibly and we could find ourselves having to import shiploads of woodchip from virgin forests in Russia and North America to reduce our reliance on coal.
Sustainable wood fuel has its place, but we must have tight rules to ensure that we do not destroy forests overseas and add to our carbon emissions in the rush to meet renewable energy targets. If not, we could be looking at a massive new driver for deforestation that will be subsidised through our energy bills.
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Martin Harper
Conservation Director, RSPB
Sir, Steve Davies is incorrect to say that forestry thinning would be bad news for bluebells (letter, July 2). The native bluebell can found in many open aspect locations, including conifer wood rides, road verges and open hill slopes where they flower before competing vegetation crowds out the light.
The Forestry Commission is right to encourage thinning of under-managed woods for reasons over and above those of providing increasing biodiversity. An ability to generate income from wood products is vitally needed when, during tight times, every enterprise should try and pay its way.
Coppicing may be great woodland management but it is generally undertaken as a hobby rather than a commercial operation.
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Rob Yorke
Abergavenny, Monmouthshire