‘Wrong’ Sherwood Forest Trees Felled: Nottingham Council Apologises.
It seems to be tree month at Property Surveying, with a second tree-based incident rising to the surface of the quagmire of news.
Sherwood Forest is legendary for its association with Robin Hood and his Merrie Men in Lincoln Green, who robbed the rich to help the poor. Stars like Erroll Flynn, Kevin Costner, Cary Elwes, Sean Connery and Russell Crowe for goodness’ sake, have donned tights (and British accents), to swash their buckle among its ancient trees (alright, I do know some of these movies never left America, or Spain, or other places with historic woodlands or great scene painters, but…).
Anyway, Newark and Sherwood District Council was overseeing a regeneration scheme and had commissioned some felling work at Intake Wood near Clipstone.
The council contracted Foxstone Forestry to undertake the work but the feller felled outside the area zoned for it and took down the wrong trees, broadleaved ones instead of conifers.
After World War 2, Corsican Pines were planted among the native broadleaved trees in Sherwood Forest to build up Britain’s stocks of timber. Eighty years later these mature pines were becoming dangerous, especially given the increase in the strength and number of storms.
The Labour Council followed due diligence, applying for and receiving a licence, and the contractor checked on nesting sites daily, however the machine operator accidentally felled broadleaved trees instead of the doomed conifers.
Foxstone Forestry contacted the Forestry Commission as soon as they realised what had happened and investigations are in progress, however, the Forestry Commission has accepted that the felling was an accident and not carried out with any intentional malice.
The trees affected are where the area of woodland backs onto housing and tapers to its end. Local people have been left devastated as these woods have provided inspiration and consolation to many for hundreds of years. The promised replanting will take a lifetime to mature, leaving them bereft.
Meanwhile, footpaths have been closed for over six months and look likely to remain so while investigation – and presumably, the proper felling – take place.