It was a pleasure to have been invited to visit the Robson Spring Wood at Sproxton to see the woodland for myself in all its natural beauty. The three woods Ness Green, Green Sykes and Robson Spring within the Howardian Hills are in an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and include a multitude of shrubs and ground flora species amongst the trees. At my meeting with the Woodland Trust Head of Government Affairs, James Cooper, and our site manager, Mark Feather, I was very interested to learn how they are returning native species such as Ash, Oak and Alder to this woodland, which encourages a much greater diversity of plant and wildlife and makes the walks through the woods even more beautiful and pleasant.
We must never forget that our trees and woods are facing many modern-day challenges such as the effects of climate change, pollution, disease and pests and can provide solutions to many of these problems, so we must not take them for granted. This is why I wholly support the Trust’s drive to plant thousands more trees, including many of our natural species such as oaks, ash and elder not only in these Woodland areas but all over the county.
I have promised to work with the Trust and the recently appointed Tree Champion, our very own Sir William Worsley, whose job it is to oversee our tree strategy including stopping the unnecessary felling of trees and also Ministers about how we can meet the Government’s target of planting 11 million trees by 2022.