Cutbacks

[tracy]

Thanks to the RFS newsletter for this information. I see many groups are being cut - sad about these ones!

Fifty-seven out of 82 Defra-backed websites are also facing the axe, under the

government-wide efficiency exercise, according to an answer to a Parliamentary

Question. The sites to be shut by April 2011 include http://www.ecolots.co.uk,

http://www.forestresearch.gov.uk, http://www.nationalparks.gov.uk and

http://www.biomassenergycentre.org.uk. The full list of sites under threat and

those that will be kept can be viewed at http://bit.ly/atYp1t.

But I guess it is inevitable....

[MartinD]

According to the Telegraph last week, the Forestry Commission is one of the public bodies on the hit list. I assume that it would be sold off rather than disappear, but that will have an impact on the management of grants, as well as on the FCs willingness to act for conservation rather than profit in the last few years.

[wrekin]

They may transfer the grants to the existing Rural Payments Agency, which runs the Rural Land Register that's already necessary for FC grants. Forestry Research is already set up as an agency (closing its website is a bit odd though).

That just leaves the land, which they can sell off, perhaps with suitable covenants to avoid political fallout from denying public access. They could even "give" it to, say, the National Trust with some deal about profit from the timber going to the government. The National Trust has a lot of tenant farmers already, and has experience with reconciling public access with a tenant who's trying to run a business.

The coalition, esp the Tories, have two stated objectives here: save money to pay off the debt, but also to simplify and reduce the size of government to get it out of people's lives. I'm not at all sure whether it's better to have one huge FC, or a mix of commercial forestry with covenants, National Trust forestry, Woodland Trust etc.

[docsquid]

As I understand it, the decision has not been made yet - FC is one of the bodies with status yet to be decided. Even the FC Regional Manager doesn't know what is going to happen. Wrekin's idea is a good guess - sell off or redistribute the land to other bodies, and transfer the grants to the Single Payment System. Another possibility is merging with English Nature for the conservation aspects of woodland management, as English Nature oversee the ELS/HLS elements of the Single Payment to farmers. We just don't know.

However it is a stated objective of the coalition to increase woodlands and plant more trees - of course whether they want to pay for this is another matter, or whether they want it to be part of the Big Society and have it done and paid for by others.

We will just have to wait and see!

[DaveTaz]

seems like the new government would like to get rid of as many of their responsibilities as possible - that way they can't be blamed or held accountable for them!

[coppiceer]

Pity about ecolots. That is quite a useful site to place adverts. I get lots more references from there than allotment forestry and coppice-products put together.

[wrekin]

The listed published today indicates that the Forestry Commission will survive, but will be substantially reformed in some yet to be announced way...

[Meadowcopse]

It's already noticeable that a large amount of DEFRA and Natural England web pages relating to conservation have vanished.

[wrekin]

"That just leaves the land, which they can sell off, perhaps with suitable covenants to avoid political fallout from denying public access. They could even "give" it to, say, the National Trust with some deal about profit from the timber going to the government. The National Trust has a lot of tenant farmers already, and has experience with reconciling public access with a tenant who's trying to run a business."

Looks like this is what they're now proposing: lease commercial forests like Kielder with requirements for access, and try to give "heritage" forests to charities:

http://www.farminguk.com/NewsHeadLine/New-direction-for-Englands-public-forest-estate_19734.html