Where HAVE all our 支持を得ようと努めるd gone? Up in smoke - as the new trendy 'green' 支持を得ようと努めるd-燃やすing stoves and boilers (基金d by 税金 millions) are 存在 fuelled by birches and oaks... leaving 列s of Britain barren

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One 暗い／優うつな day in March 2012, Pip Pountney, recently retired from Warwick University, went for a walk in Ryton 支持を得ようと努めるd 近づく Coventry with Ann Wilson, a former 織物 化学者／薬剤師.

Ryton’s 216 acres are 述べるd by its owners, the Warwickshire 野性生物 信用, as ‘one of the largest 半分-natural 古代の woodlands in Warwickshire’. A 場所／位置 of Special 科学の 利益／興味, it has long been famous for its bluebells, which 繁栄するd every spring beneath a canopy of English oaks.

But what ex-teacher Pountney and Wilson saw looked to them like utter desolation. They （機の）カム across a stand where about 50 円熟した oaks, some 300 years old, had been felled the previous winter. Their trunks lay in ragged piles, some sawn into roundels.

Around two-and-a-half years ago, in December 2012, Bickerton Hill in Cheshire was covered in trees

The oaks’ 運命／宿命, the 信用 has 確認するd, was to be burnt: as ‘維持できる’ heating 燃料 in スピードを出す／記録につける-燃やすing stoves ? a market which is 拡大するing 速く. によれば 貿易（する） group HETUS, almost 200,000 such stoves are 任命する／導入するd every year ? a five-倍の 増加する since 2007.

スピードを出す／記録につけるs, however, 料金d only a part of Britain’s 拡大するing appetite for ‘green’ 支持を得ようと努めるd-sourced energy. 追加するing to 需要・要求する is the even faster-growing market for heating and hot-water systems fuelled by 支持を得ようと努めるd 半導体素子s and pellets ? which is ひどく subsidised by taxpayers.

The 植林学 （売買）手数料，委託（する）／委員会／権限 and the biomass 産業’s ロビー group, the Woodland Heat 協会, 主張する this 政策 is 正当化するd on 環境の grounds. They say the new ‘biomass’ energy market can 改善する the 質 of forests, by creating new 財政上の incentives to ‘manage’ 支持を得ようと努めるd that have been neglected and 許すd to run wild.

However, other 専門家s 恐れる that in some forests, the consequences will be 悲惨な. Oxford University ecologist Clive Hambler said: ‘Subsidising biomass is one of the most 反対する-生産力のある 政策s ever invented, and about the most bizarre thing you could かもしれない do to 反対する 気候 change.’

Now many of the trees in the area, which is owned and managed by The 国家の 信用, have been 削減（する） 負かす／撃墜する

全体にわたる, more 支持を得ようと努めるd is now 存在 burnt from British 支持を得ようと努めるd than at any time since the 産業の 革命

In his 見解（をとる）, felling British hard 支持を得ようと努めるd forests ーするために 燃やす them is 害（を与える）ing biodiversity, destroying habitats, and may 井戸／弁護士席 増加する 放出／発行s. He said: ‘Big, hardwood trees are enormous 炭素 沈むs, and take hundreds of years to be 取って代わるd.’

Dr 示す Fisher, 研究 fellow at the Wildland 研究 学校／設ける at 物陰／風下d University, agreed, 説: ‘Forests are 存在 butchered in the service of an ideology. This new 産業 incentivises 荒廃, and no one is looking at the long-称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語 consequences for our 支持を得ようと努めるd.’

Last week, this newspaper 明らかにする／漏らすd how the 燃やすing of millions of トンs of 支持を得ようと努めるd pellets at the ひどく subsidised Drax 力／強力にする 工場／植物 in Yorkshire is destroying forests in A merica. Today the 焦点（を合わせる） is closer to home ? the 衝撃 on 国内の woodlands of the vogue for 燃やすing 支持を得ようと努めるd. Under EU 支配するs, 支持を得ようと努めるd 燃料 qualifies as ‘無 炭素’, because felled trees will 恐らく grow 支援する and re-吸収する the CO2 emitted by 燃やすing them. 燃やすing 支持を得ようと努めるd to 生成する electricity or heat counts に向かって 放出／発行s 的s, so that 半導体素子s, pellets and いつかs スピードを出す／記録につけるs qualify for a ‘green’ 補助金.

Known as the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), this has rewarded the owners of 支持を得ようと努めるd 燃やすing boilers with a sum の近くに to £200 million since it started in April 2012. And such 取り付け・設備s, にもかかわらず the cheapest system for an 普通の／平均（する） farmhouse costing about £6,000, are growing exponentially: the 1,667 国内の 部隊s 登録（する）d in the first ４半期/4分の1 of 2015 代表するd a 96 per cent 増加する on the previous year.

全体にわたる, more 支持を得ようと努めるd is now 存在 burnt from British 支持を得ようと努めるd than at any time since the 産業の 革命. The 政府’s 的 is that the 年次の 燃料 収穫 should reach two million トンs by 2020 ? about 18 per cent of the 現在の total 削減（する） from British forests.

Trunks from dozens of trees lay in ragged piles with some sawn into roundels at Bickerton Hill in October last year

At 現在の 傾向s, it will easily be より勝るd, because the RHI is astonishingly lucrative. 麻薬を吸うing Hot, a 支持を得ようと努めるd-heat company in Daventry, 15 miles from Ryton, says on its website that it ‘will not only give you 解放する／自由な heating, but also 生成する staggering paybacks, often 支払う／賃金ing for a biomass 取り付け・設備 within 3 years, and then years of 解放する／自由な heating. The fact that RHI is linked to インフレーション means that you are 事実上 保護するd against 増加するs in 燃料 prices.’

Under the RHI, householders, 商売／仕事s or public 団体／死体s with a biomass boiler make a 利益（をあげる） every time they use it. The 率s are different for 国内の and 商業の 前提s, and they 変化させる with the size of boiler. But they work out as about 8p per kilowatt hour of heat produced for homes, and 6p for most 商売／仕事s. But the cost of 半導体素子s is much lower ? between 2.7p and 3.5p per kilowatt hour, depending on the size of a 配達／演説／出産. The 補助金 is 索引 linked, 税金-解放する／自由な and 保証（人）d for 20 years in the 事例／患者 of 商売／仕事s and seven for homes.

However, unlike the 補助金s for other ‘renewable’ energy, the RHI is met not by 徴収するs on 消費者s’ energy 法案s, but general 課税. A part of every 付加価値税 or 所得税 領収書 goes に向かって it ? cash which could have been spent on the NHS or schools.

The argument over whether the RHI is 正当化するd is 焦点（を合わせる）d 特に on hardwood forests such as Ryton. によれば the 植林学 （売買）手数料，委託（する）／委員会／権限, 75 per cent of British hardwood 削減（する） in 2013 ? some 400,000 トンs ? went to 燃料.

But conserv ationists have been はっきりと divided for years as to how such 支持を得ようと努めるd should be managed.

One 見解（をとる）, held by the Warwickshire 信用 and others, is that in 支持を得ようと努めるd which have been left ‘unmanaged’, trees such as oaks should be 減ずるd in 濃度／密度, to 許す more light to 侵入する the canopy. This, the 信用 says, will help バタフライs and 確かな flowers 繁栄する.

The 信用 says it is also trying to 回復する 伝統的な ‘coppicing’ ? cutting trees such as hazel の近くに to the ground, so they 速く sprout 多重の 茎・取り除くs. In past centuries, coppicing supported 田舎の （手先の）技術s, such as 盗品故買者ing.

The 破滅的な 衝撃 of the ‘re-ヒース／荒れ地ing’ 計画／陰謀 in Cheshire. This, above, is how Cuckoo 激しく揺する Valley looked from Bickerton Hill before the 国家の 信用 削減（する） 負かす／撃墜する a birch 支持を得ようと努めるd in August 2008 for スピードを出す／記録につけるs and biomass

This is the same 場所 but pictured last month - the 見解（をとる） now is of scrubland and 明らかにする earth

Clive Hambler said that いつかs, this was ‘defensible’. But often, he 追加するd, it ignored the many 種類 that 繁栄する in shady broadleaf woodland, 含むing bats, キツツキs, many 肉親，親類d of moth, stag beetles and several rare mosses. Moreover, 回復するing coppiced 支持を得ようと努めるd which had been left to grow for １０年間s was 極端に difficult. Dr Fisher said: ‘You can’t just recreate 条件s that 存在するd 40 years ago or more. The 影響 of bringing 支援する coppicing to 支持を得ようと努めるd like these can be to wipe out the entire ecosystem which is 現実に there. When you 削減（する） 負かす／撃墜する the trees, you 除去する the homes of animals, birds and 工場／植物s.’

支持を得ようと努めるd where there has been 最近の felling never look pretty, and in Ryton last month, it wasn’t hard to tell felled and untouched areas apart. Where no trees had been 削減（する）, there was still a lush canopy, and carpets of flowers. どこかよそで were dozens of newly felled oaks, their stumps still coated with sawdust. Just a few 孤立するd examples had been all 借りがあるd to remain ? in 植林学 parlance, ‘基準s’. Many of these trees, no longer 保護するd from the elements by the oaks that had surrounded them, seemed to be dying.

Moreover, in areas felled in previous years, the open forest 床に打ち倒す had 消えるd. Instead, the ground was choked by はびこる brambles and impenetrable hazel, with few 円熟した broadleaf trees to be seen.

At nearby Wappenbury 支持を得ようと努めるd, also owned by the 信用, the scene looked still worse. There too, the 信用 is trying to 回復する coppicing and thin out 円熟した hardwoods. In one 位置／汚点／見つけ出す, a 抱擁する grove of aspens had just been felled, leaving almost no vegetation at all. In its place was just several acres of 黒人／ボイコット mud.

At least in Warwickshire the 意向 is to 保存する, not destroy, the woodland. But at Bickerton Hill, on Cheshire’s Welsh 国境, the owner ? the 国家の 信用 ? is trying to wipe out 抱擁する 列s of a much loved birch 支持を得ようと努めるd altogether. Here, the 計画（する） is to ‘re-ヒース／荒れ地’ ? 回復する the heathery, open slopes that 存在するd before the birch trees began to grow 80 years ago.

A 地元の forest 請負業者 said that last winter he helped 除去する 3,000 トンs of birch that had been felled ? all sold for スピードを出す／記録につけるs and biomass. Yet によれば Hambler, the 計画／陰謀 is doomed. It takes centuries to create the 生物学の 条件s that had created a ヒース／荒れ地, he said ? not just a few years. Indeed, in areas felled in 2008, it could be seen that when resilient birch seedlings had started to spr out the 信用 had them 浴びせる／消すd in powerful 除草剤, wiping out all the vegetation ? birch and heather alike. A 信用 広報担当者 定評のある the 関心s of 地元のs but 主張するd that 結局, the re-ヒース／荒れ地ing would be successful.

Walkers make their way between tree stumps and open ground along what used to be a forest path at Bickerton Hill

Either way, although the NT also received a 認める, it is （疑いを）晴らす that 需要・要求する for biomass has made this 計画／陰謀 more economically viable.

The same is true for the felling and coppicing at Wappenbury. 野性生物 信用 woodland officer Eddie Asbery said that there a 取引，協定 was done with a 請負業者: in return for 除去するing the trees for 解放する／自由な, he sold the 支持を得ようと努めるd for biomass.

Hambler said: ‘British forest 野性生物 has been on a downward spiral for thousands of years. A 大規模な new market for 支持を得ようと努めるd should be （犯罪の）一味ing very loud alarm bells. We should not be complacent just because 除去するing 支持を得ようと努めるd is a defensible 管理／経営 in some 場所／位置s.’

Be that as it may, the results 狼狽 Pip Pountney ? who along with Ann Wilson, has formed a （選挙などの）運動をする group to 保存する Warwickshire’s forests, and taken an 生態学 diploma at Warwick University.

‘This is where I played as a child,’ she said in Ryton 支持を得ようと努めるd. ‘They call it an 古代の woodland. The way things are going, it’s going to 結局最後にはーなる as an oak forest with no oaks.’