Woodland Creation in the UK - Challenges and Opportunities, with Nick Phillips, Woodland Trust

What is holding woodland creation in the UK back, and what opportunities are there to increase tree cover? Charly went to Cambridgeshire to meet Nick Phillips, Head of Forestry Policy at the Woodland Trust to find out what he believes are the main issues we are facing in the UK. In a naturally regenerating piece of 'set aside' land, he also talked to her about some of the things that are holding woodland creation back but also some exciting opportunities for landowner to fund tree planting . Wood for the Trees is a series of films about the future of UK forests, trees and woodlands from environmentalist filmmaker Charly Le Marchant and sawmill owner Tom Barnes. During our first series we explored a range of perspective and outlooks on this subject from Agroforestry to selective breeding for the Timber Industry to Rewilding. The UK has only around 13% woodland cover, one of the lowest levels of tree density in Europe. The current government has a pledge to to plant 30 K Hectares of trees per year. Despite various schemes to encourage woodland creation only around 9K Hectares were planted last year. For the last three years we have explored how planting trees can help mitigate both the climate and biodiversity crisis' we are facing. In the next few films we are looking at the question, "If tree planting can do some many good things, why is it so hard to plant more trees now?" 2.03 We have more land dedicated to golf courses than orchards. 2.35 A 'Big Challenge' to woodland creation is pest and disease 2.49 The Results of pest and disease. 4.45 Woodland trusts grants and how they allow for natural colonisation 5.25 The beauty of Natural colonisation 5.41 What can be done to encourage tree cover? 6.19 How scaling up UK tree supply can deal with the increasing problem of pests and disease? 6.53 The benefits of natural regeneration for people and nature. #rewilding #nature #climatechange #restoration #naturerestoration #woodland #thewoodlandtrust #tree #treeplanting #cambridge #woodforthetrees Find out more about the series at woodforthetrees.uk After 6 years, funded by and co-produced by Tom of Vastern Timber, Wood for the Trees has now become a CIC - WOODFORTHETREESUK CIC. This film was funded by Tom Barnes, pre CIC formation. It has been a great journey so far looking for, and finding, the answers to some of the questions we originally asked above. And much more. Tom and Charly have always strived to create a balanced, non-biased films exploring topics that are popular and not so popular, following our own interests and those of our viewers (please keep asking questions and suggesting topics). Charly is taking the CIC forward along with promoting previous content and will continue to follow the threads of mycelium and the drifting leaves to other stories. So stay tuned to tuned to find out where they lead and what sprouts, leaves, blossoms and fruits. We are grateful for the ongoing advice and support from the many connections we have made over the years, along with the support of Co - Directors in the CIC, Jenny Macdonald and Caroline Wajsblum.