We the People Save our Ancient Woodlands is a campaign seeking to halt the biggest deforestation in Britain since World War 1, which could devastate 108 Ancient Woodlands, 693 Local Wildlife Sites and 33 Sites of Special Scientific Interest. The HS2 rail line will irreplaceably and unnecessarily cut down our ancient heritage and the habitat of all the animals, birds. flora and fauna who dwell there. Projected to cost over £110 billion pounds of tax payers money HS2 are already flouting the laws and failing in their environmental promises including heartlessly cutting down trees during the birds nesting season.
Trees play a vital role in combating climate chaos by removing planet wrecking emissions from the air around us. However, despite their importance, just 13% of the UK’s total land area has tree cover compared to an EU average of 38%. We would need to plant an extra 3.7 million acres of woodland to meet targets and current figures show that the UK fell 71% short of targets in planting trees in the last year.