BRITAIN’S AFFORESTATION

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 November 1944, Page 2

BRITAIN’S AFFORESTATION

THREE MILLION ACRES Plans to cover vast areas of the poorest land in Britain with forests that will ultimately produce a third of our future timber needs awaits a Cabinet decision (says the London “Daily Telegraph”). When in full operation the scheme will provide direct employment for 50,000 men and women on the land and indirect employment locally for another 250,000. Without waiting for approval of its full post-war programme the Forestry Commission • is forging ahead and transforming thousands of acres of moorland into rich forests. In the Border counties of Cumberland, Northumberland. Dumfrieshire and Roxburghshire 100,000 acres of land have been acquired, and more than half of it is already planted. It is officially .estimated that these 100.000 acres of forest will produce timber worth £OOO,OOO a year. Already about £1,500,000 has been invested by the State. Experts consider that the forest area can be more than doubled without serious interference with sheep raising. Ready for post-war expansion millions of young seedlings of every type of soft wood have been raised in special nurseries throughout the war, mainly by women workers. The Forestry Commission owns nearly 800,000 acres of land, of which more than half is now planted. The development programme would crease the acreage to 3,000,000. The chief areas where large-scale afforestation is planned are the Scottish Highlands, the Border counties Wales, Yorkshire, Durham, the Midlands, Devon, Dorset, and East Anglia.