Wherever you turn at the moment there is energy for tree planting. Tree mania, we have heard it described as. It is all to often motivated by a well-intentioned but naive attempt to 'offset' carbon emissions. Planting trees is really important, necessary even, but it is not an alternative to reducing/eliminating carbon emissions. It is additional to that. Indeed we need to plant many million trees in Gloucestershire just to offset the reduction in tree numbers that will come about as a result of Ash Dieback! Tree whips take years to get ready for planting, then the trees then take many more years to sequester any serious amount of carbon. Many more trees need to be planted than will exist at maturity, and ongoing management of the tree is all too often underestimated or not considered. A more natural approach to woodland creation, allowing natural regeneration to occur, is often overlooked. The GLNP is working hard to ensure that best practice is followed when undertaking tree projects. As part of this aim, we wanted to share a document, produced by Joe Middleton from the Woodland Trust, which demonstrates the different plastic-alternative tree guards on the market at present, as trialed at a project they have in Bath. Thanks for sharing, Joe! To ensure best-practice guidance is readily available, the GLNP are producing a Woodland creation and tree-growing strategy document which will be based on a principle of 'the right tree in the right place'. While this is being prepared, we would like to point you in the direction of another Woodland Trust document, their Emergency Tree Plan for the UK. IFinally, if you are in Stroud District and are interested in getting involved in growing trees, either by volunteering, supplying land, funding the acquisition of trees, creating a tree nursery or anything else, please get in touch with Claire at Stroud Valleys Project. She is doing great work coordinating a team of volunteers, matching supply with demand and getting trees in the ground! http://www.stroudvalleysproject.org/ The GLNP hopes to, in time, scale-up Clare's great work to deliver a county-wide coordinated approach to woodland creation and tree-growing. Watch this space.

On Friday 31st January, the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union was terminated. This event heralds the end of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the EU subsidy scheme which is considered by many to be at least partly responsible for driving environmentally damaging farming practices, contributing to ecological collapse, catastrophic soil loss, water pollution and more. The Department for Environment Farming and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) intend to replace with an Environmental Land Management scheme (ELMs) which rewards farmers for the public goods their practices and land provides. DEFRA are co-designing this scheme, and supporting a number of Tests and Trials across the country to guide policy design. Exactly 1 week after our departure from the EU, the GLNP held an event at the Royal Agricultural University to showcase the three Tests and Trials being conducted in Gloucestershire. over 60 farmers and LNP members attended this lively and informative event, and the presentations delivered by DEFRA, Farmers Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG), Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust (GWT) and the Cotswold Conservation Board (CCB). These are attached below (one slide fits all) for your interest. The LNP will keep you updated with the progress of ELMs. A national pilot is set to be launched at the end of 2021, with CAP Basic Payments being tapered off from 2024. More information is contained within the DEFRA presentation.

Following a very well-attended and passionate meeting of the Nature Recovery working group of the GLNP, a position statement has been created which represents a shared understanding, and provides the basis for a joined-up approach to dealing with Ash Dieback. Different partners in the GLNP, particularly land-owning partners, will have their own, perhaps regional or national positions, and their responses to this crisis will largely be guided by those considerations, but it was considered useful to offer a GLNP-wide position, not least in terms of communicating a rationale for actions to the Gloucestershire public. The statement details an approach that is based on risk and best-practice guidance. It puts the natural environment and public safety at the heart of decision-making around the response to Ash Dieback. It is hoped that this will prove a useful tool in communicating about the issue to all stakeholders.