Hands Off Hartlebury Common

http://i1179.photobucket.com/albums/x395/stevemac2/how-to-age-forest-trees2.jpg...

Not a very accurate chart I know but it is mirrored by other similar informations for a guestimate

An yes, I know it is an american table but netherless, 150 years for a 22 inch diameter tree would be about right

718 is relevant because climate change does not just effect upland ares but lowland as well.

If you would like to meet me I can show you many areas that are sucumbing to this  phenomena on the common. The proposed changes, plus grazing, plus, root reductions in the strata will exacerpate the problem.

At the upper terrace adjacent to the pine plantation (south) there is significant moisture here. This at the  the highest and most exposed point of the common. This is  indicated by the permanently sodden floor moss. This will be lost as soon as the trees are taken down and as the moisture levels drop.

Broad leaf oak canopy and our indiginous birches both assist in the retention of cooler, moister enviroments at ground level. You only have to walk around the common to see where the lushest and greenest grasses exist at the moment.

Deforestation is one of the most damaging things that can be done to an enviroment. Normally the felling of trees is offset by there planting elsewhere. Whilst a felled tree lying on the ground holds its carbon, the manpower, management and fuels, plant, transport cannott be called carbon neutral and act as a deficit.

Add to this that trees consume co2 and generate oxygen makes the validity for their cutting less credible.

The common has had more plant, machinery, work, manpower, recources, expended on it in the last two years than it has in the past one hundred. All this to create an unsustainable enviroment. Is this a green policy?

I notice the tree felling to the east of the pine plantations, in the gulleys headind towards the worcester road.

Were these cleared by our ancestors for agricultural means also. I think they are a bit to steep for man or beast.

In these areas, the protective layer of humus rich soil is know being washed away. More and more of the fresh red sand underneath is begining to show. This in turn is being eroded.

http://i1179.photobucket.com/albums/x395/stevemac2/DSCF6601.jpg...

This oak is over a metre accross, not only was it cut down a week ago in the middle of the breeding season for birds but was uneccesarily cut to the floor. The cutting was subject to maintaince by a utility company but the tree should have enjoyed some protections. The felling is counter to guidlines used by E-on and central networks. There is another felled tree adjacent to this one.

I have answered you in turn, could you do me the courtesy of doing the same

Steve McCarron