Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the (1) availability, and (2) efficacy, of sustainable alternatives to the plastic tube tree guards that are used for planting young trees.

Plastic tree guards have been used for new woodland creation as they are highly effective in helping the establishment of new trees, which must be protected from deer and rabbits if they are to survive.

There are other options for protecting young trees including biodegradable tree guards, temporary fencing and wildlife management, but currently these options are less effective than plastic tree guards in deterring browsers, particularly Deer.

The forestry sector is carrying out work to develop, and trial more effective biodegradable tree guards and the aim should be to get to a place where these are used as a matter of course - the forthcoming England tree strategy will look at how to support this.

In the meantime, current practice demands that tree guards should be retrieved after they have reached a point where they are redundant. Plans to collect and recycle the tree guards have been introduced by a number of forestry institutions.