Forests
(asked on 16th December 2015) - View Source
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many hectares of trees have been (a) felled and (b) replanted on Forestry Commission land in England in each year since 2000.
The area felled in any one year on the public forest estate in England is not recorded separately, but the total area that has been felled and which is in the process of being either restocked, or being converted to another land use, such as open habitats for landscape or conservation reasons, is recorded. This is given in the table below, along with the area restocked each year and the expenditure on restocking operations.
Year ending 31 March | Total felled area 1 (thousand hectares) | Restocked area 2 (thousand hectares) | Expenditure associated with restocking 3 (£ ,000s) |
2001 | 7.9 | 2.1 | 5,181 |
2002 | 8.4 | 2.3 | 5,779 |
2003 | 7.9 | 2.3 | 5,979 |
2004 | 8.1 | 2.2 | 5,735 |
2005 | 8.1 | 1.9 | 5,635 |
2006 | 7.5 | 2.5 | 6,356 |
2007 | 8.2 | 1.9 | 6,562 |
2008 | 8.3 | 2.1 | 5,915 |
2009 | 8.7 | 1.8 | 5,924 |
2010 | 9.2 | 1.5 | 5,880 |
2011 | 8.1 | 2.5 | 7,340 |
2012 | 8.2 | 2.2 | 7,384 |
2013 | 8.6 | 2.2 | 6,448 |
2014 | 8.7 | 2.1 | 7,399 |
2015 | 8.6 | 2.3 | 7,884 |
1 ‘Felled area’ is the area of the public forest estate that is recorded as felled on the sub-compartment database, the Forestry Commission’s electronic record of current land use. Because there is generally a two to four year gap between felling and restocking, or the reclassification as another land use, the total area classified as ‘felled’ is significantly greater than that which is felled in any one year.
2 ‘Restocked area’ is the area of the public forest estate that has previously been felled and which is recorded as having been restocked in the previous 12 months, including by natural regeneration and replanting.
3 Expenditure associated with restocking is all money spent on activities directly attributed to restocking after felling, including preparation of the site and maintenance during the initial establishment phase.