Despite the ‘sub aqua’ conditions over the winter, the proposed community wood at Berridon Farm is now a reality.
The tree plants seem to be taking well, though alas not as well as the weeds. Looking at it now, it is a long way away from the amenity it will eventually become, but already it is providing a service to the community in the form of a topic for conversation at the pub.
Many of the ‘experts’ who pontificate on the subject,seem to see conservation and agriculture as being opposed to each other, and one is expected to take sides, either with the ‘money grabbing farmers’ lobby or the ‘raving ramblers’. As I have a foot in both camps I have to sit on the fence for a lot of these exchanges of views, but after a few pints some very entertaining and imaginative theories start to emerge. One idea is that the deer fence is an environmental hazard, another is that Sitka Spruce are genetically modified. This type of assertion is a prime example that reading the Daily Mail can seriously damage your (mental) health.
For a factual and unsensational view on matters like the badgers versus cows debate, the rights and wrongs of hunting and the GM issue, the Western Morning News is a much better bet.
The new wood at Berridon is part of the South West Forest which provides an alternative for farmers who would rather not work eighty plus hours a week unpaid in order to make the supermarkets even richer.
The problems of bovine TB in the area and the derisory prices paid to farmers for their produce have already been covered by the Bradworthy News, so it is no surprise that South West Forest has been inundated with applications for converting farmland into woodland.
This all helps counter overproduction whilst at the same time helping local employment and tourism.
The vast majority of the trees are native deciduous species with a small proportion of conifers to make it commercially viable. A small percentage of these are Sitka Spruce which have been less genetically modified than the roses in our local garden centres or budgerigars in pet shops.