Monday 8 January 2018

Northern Forest.

It seems the Government in their wisdom has decided that we need a Northern Forest but quite what the purpose of said forest is I have no idea, perhaps it will be cut down and used to fuel the Northern Powerhouse.

Now as a user of a wood burning stove I'm quite interested in the new forest, well you never know if there's any chance of some cheap wood, I won't hold my breath waiting.

It seems the forest will stretch from Liverpool on the West coast to Hull on the East coast thereby going back to the days when England had a heart of oak much needed for the construction of all the wooden battle ships we needed for our enormous Tudor navy when Henry VIII ruled the waves.

I'm rather guessing though that the forest won't be oak and will more than likely be pine a quick growing tree useful in construction although I'm wondering if the purpose of the forest is to be decorative or whether it's supposed to have some usefulness?

Whichever choice it all seems a little expensive, as I understand it the Government is funding initially at 5.7 Million and the total cost will be something closer to 500 Million and will see 62,000 acres of woodland planted  and is expected to generate £2 Billion for the economy through tourism and by boosting rural business and generating jobs.

Apparently the trees are to be planted along the route of the M62 which will be lovely for all those people in their driver-less cars as they will have something to look at whilst their car sits up the arse of the car in front, myself I would find that quite unnerving so shall forgo watching the trees as I progress and will be driving my car myself which will require me to look where I'm going.

I'm lucky now that I live in the country whereby should I wish to see a tree all I need to do is look out of the window and in all fairness I have to report that mostly trees are fairly boring objects and I find it hard to imagine the vast wealth created by hoards of people going to the Northern Forest to look at a tree.

One doesn't wish to put a dampener on the tree thing but I'm forced to wonder might it not have been a slightly better idea to have invested the money elsewhere, say the NHS for example? It's just a thought.

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