Day 058 - 30 Nov 94 - Page 18


     
     1        range?
     2        A.  In any one area that has been planted at the same time,
     3        they will be approximately the same age range.
     4
     5   Q.   Again with the natural forests as opposed to plantation
     6        forests, would it be fair to say that, in general, the
     7        flora and fauna are vastly more diverse when you compare a
     8        plantation to what you call maybe a similar natural forest?
     9        A.  I think, Mr. Morris, the word -----
    10
    11   Q.   Is that what scientific opinion is?
    12        A.  There are scientific opinions which indicate in given
    13        areas where there was a natural diversity in the first
    14        place about the change that has taken place when
    15        monocultures have been established, yes, but it is not true
    16        to say that if a small area is cleared and then replanted,
    17        that the whole region is affected in a serious way or that
    18        the animals and birds to be found in the plantation forest
    19        are totally different than they were in the original
    20        natural forest.  It varies it, but it does not necessarily
    21        totally affect it.
    22
    23   Q.   Just to compare the plantation with the natural forests --
    24        sorry, just because you mentioned it in that paragraph --
    25        many of the monoculture plantations in northern Europe, for
    26        example, are not indigenous trees, are they?  They are
    27        imported varieties?
    28        A.  In this country that would be a perfectly reasonable
    29        statement because the spruce is not an original indigenous
    30        tree in this country.  But in Finland and Sweden virtually
    31        all the natural regeneration and the plantation is based
    32        upon a seed stock of those regions.  In fact, where they
    33        have attempted to introduce certain species from North
    34        America they have on the whole had failure.
    35
    36   Q.   So, in the UK they are imported species, in general, in
    37        those monoculture plantations?
    38        A.  This has been the practice over the years, and a
    39        practice which, I am sure you will appreciate, is changing
    40        quite rapidly now as a great mixture of species are being
    41        replanted where the post First World and post Second World
    42        War species have been removed.
    43
    44   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That is by design in the sense that it has
    45        been decided that is the way to do things, but the
    46        opportunity has arisen, presumably, because since anyway
    47        the middle 80s, we have been 40 years after the end of the
    48        Second World War, so a lot of the planting which was done
    49        in the years after the Second World War is now coming to
    50        the end of its cycle and they are starting again and have 
    51        been for the last few years.  Is that right or not? 
    52        A.  Yes, I think, my Lord, the situation in our country 
    53        (and I mean by that England, Scotland and Wales) is very
    54        different from Scandinavia because there the natural
    55        regeneration on very, very large areas of forests has been
    56        an effective way of recovery even where they have done a
    57        lot of felling.  In this country after the two world wars,
    58        the objective was to recover the stock of timber we had,
    59        and very large areas of a monoculture were introduced.
    60

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