 Woodland
- improving our quality
of life
Woodland
provides many more benefits than simply timber. It plays a valuable role in
improving the quality of all our lives. Woods play host to a spectacular variety of wildlife, provide
opportunities for recreation, reduce pollution, generate oxygen, store
carbon, help to stabilise the soil, and provide us with renewable raw
materials and shelter. They also contribute towards rural
development, flood alleviation and tourism
Woods are essential in urban environments too because they help to
clean the air, trap dust, reduce storm water run off, reduce noise and
pollution, and help to reduce asthma levels.
Less tangible but vital to
individuals from an emotional and recreational standpoint is their role
in enhancing the local landscape, providing a tranquil environment for
spiritual renewal. In order to achieve better social inclusion, action to
reconnect people with the environment is vital. We must all be connected
to the natural world if we are to make
sense of our part in it.
Space
for People
This sets out the Woodland Trust’s analysis of access to woodland in the
UK. By providing accessible woodland near to where people live, in
both urban and rural areas, we believe society will enjoy many of the
other benefits that woodland offers.
Making woodland count
Research published by the Woodland Trust has shown how all our lives can be hugely improved by environmental planning.
By creating and protecting woodland, significant gains can be made in
urban regeneration, employment, health, rural development,
biodiversity, clean air, recreation, carbon sequestration, water
quality improvement, flood prevention, urban regeneration and
education.
The report is available as a summary or in full:
Woodland Trust action
Around a third of the Trust’s 1,150 woods are within a mile of a town
of 10,000 or more residents, and 155 of these are part of wider
Community Forests, which is ‘the UK’s largest environmental
regeneration project.’ We have also delivered a highly successful
Millennium Commission backed project
‘Woods on
your Doorstep’ which involved creating 250 new
community woods close to centres of population in England, Wales and
Northern Ireland. Communities are the cornerstone of Woods on your
Doorstep and they have been involved in every phase from finding the
site, raising funds, designing the woods, planting them and
celebrating the success of the initiative.
(All Woodland
Trust consultation responses are available in Word format -
click here)
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