Our national canopy; 25.1% broadleaf, over a quarter & 62.3% conifer…nearly two thirds .
I am enjoying this read. Thank you to our supporters, Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
Now that is not so bad is it! And the gap? Open forest areas are 10% (for picnics etc.! for the animals, flowers, insects that enjoy a little more light too of course…) and 1.9% is temporarily unstocked.https://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/tools-and-resources/statistics/forestry-statistics/forestry-statistics-2021/
I was prompted to read these statistics by an article in a national newspaper that sounded …well…a trifle outside of my experience. I see a lot of such articles. Fake news perhaps? Alarmist headlines anyway. There is that trend, even in the respectable dailies I fear. The headlines also can be at odds with the content of the story, bizarre, are they looking for clicks? Once bitten twice shy with those clicks on misleading headlines I say!
Hmm. I was criticised today for looking at an average number in relation to planting with a comment saying it did not reveal the whole story. Yes, that is the thing about figures. They are useful though, it is Maths week.
Our spend is going down, forest fires going up
Some startling figures; hard to believe that less is being spent now than for the past few decades. How dismaying to see forest fires going up though not a surprise – this is why we like to scatter our tree planting all over the island, all eggs not in one basket as it were! Poor Louth is lowest covered at 2.9% cover; we are quite naked. In Dublin it is only 6.5%, hmm, leafy Paris or New York we ain’t. Leitrim receives a lot of attention at 18.9% highest in the country. It makes its canopy much less dense than New York City’s apparently, if Google is correct there!
Easy Treesie 