brentwood.gov.uk

The Woodland Trust would like to see absolute protection for ancient woodland. We would also like to ensure that there is no loss of aged or veteran trees found outside ancient woodland.

We would also note that woodland is a valuable part of the rural economy:

Employment:
In total, the timber industry is estimated to employ about 55,000 people in Great Britain. About 54% of this is employment supported through multiplier effects (i.e., indirect and induced employment), while the rest is directly related to the forestry sector (including everybody from timber growers to processors through to employment in forest education and forestry-related Government employees
Regeneration:
Establishing new woodland is an inexpensive way of restoring the quality of the landscape and soil whilst contributing to wider goals of community and economic regeneration, often of prime concern in brownfield redevelopment. Woodland can also greatly enhance the visual appearance and amenity value of regeneration schemes.
A prime example of land regeneration using woodland was the Forestry Commission's Newlands Project (North West of England), which used a specially designed 'Public Benefits Recording System' to prioritise the planting and establishment of woodland on DUN sites (damaged, under-used and neglected land) in terms of which ones would provide the greatest benefits.)

Research by the Mersey Forest Brownfield Project ("Brownfield Remediation to Forestry") has shown that tree planting can be an important mechanism of reclaiming and regenerating contaminated brownfield land. Planting fast growing trees such as willows and poplars can markedly enhance the natural degradation of many pollutants in the soil, including petroleum residues, oil, industrial solvents and paint.

Rural development:
Forestry contributes to rural development directly through employment in timber production and processing and also indirectly through landscape benefits which attract tourist revenues and local visitors
Tourism:
Woodland recreation is another driver for rural development. Forests are amongst the UK's most popular visitor destinations, receiving about 350 million day visits a year (1). Forest-related tourism expenditure associated with tourism day visits, is estimated to be around £2.3 billion, over 3% of the total tourism expenditure in the UK (2).

(2) Hill, Courtney, Burton, Potts (2003) Forests Role in Tourism: Phase 2.Summary Report- Final for the Forestry Group (Economics and Statisics) of the Forestry Commission.