I told you this would happen!

On the 29th January I wrote a blog about the rush by everyone to do their bit for climate change by planting trees. (Scroll down to read this blog) This is one of the things that I said - "They (Government) also need to give better guidance as to the best places to plant new woodland and importantly, where might not be the best place".

Today I read that Nestlé have apologised profusely that they have planted a load of trees all over a rare wildflower meadow!  Their intentions were good - to help offset the carbon that they produce on the dairy farm they look after in Cumbria, by planting a wood. Sounds good doesn't it! 

However, the problem was that the meadow they chose to plant these trees on, grows Butterfly orchids, Betony, Scabious, Restharrow and Harebells amongst many other flowers.  

It is estimated that that we have lost around 97% of the UK's wildflower meadows since the 1930s - so that they are now an extremely rare habitat. Planting trees on a wildflower meadow would in time, as the tree canopy closes over, bid farewell to all the flowers, leaving just a boring group of trees planted in straight lines.

Wild flower meadows are not the sort of place to plant trees!

To be fair to Nestlé, they have reacted quickly when local conservationists pointed out the mistake. They have ripped out all the saplings and will plant them somewhere else - hopefully this time giving the plan a little more consideration! 

This particular incident does demonstrate the issue that tree planting is fine - but only in the correct place. Often, land managers will naturally look to plant trees on the least productive land, which ironically, may well also be the place that has the greatest biodiversity within the landscape.

So, I repeat. Government, you need to bring out much better guidelines as to where to plant trees to maximise their benefits and importantly, where NOT to plant them!