Day 073 - 13 Jan 95 - Page 08
1 actually found something like 20 other tree species, though
2 often it is single individual items. My companion, my
3 partner, in the forest has now counted and identified
4 something like 50 different species of flora, small
5 flowers, plants, herbs and things, and it has got lots of
6 wildlife. It is very popular with badgers, very popular
7 with deer -- so popular, in fact, I am having trouble with
8 regeneration -- there are foxes, hares, mice, moles, there
9 are some hawks or buzzards; I do not know which they are.
10 It is basically full of wildlife; animals, flora, all sorts
11 of interesting things and things that are important.
12
13 Q. So, this hands on experience of management, how does that
14 influence you when you go and view forests around the UK?
15 A. First of all, it tells me how difficult it is to run a
16 forest in an environmentally sensitive way. It tells me
17 something about the financial constraints I am under, or
18 how I should be doing it. But also, when I go to another
19 woodland in the UK, I will actually compare it in a way
20 against my own woodland, see how it measures, whether it is
21 better or less better in terms of timber production,
22 quality of timber or in terms of the environmental values.
23
24 Q. So, it would be fair to say that provides a kind of
25 yardstick?
26 A. It is a yardstick I would use, yes.
27
28 Q. Just while we are on this issue, when you visit other
29 forests around the UK, what do you do?
30 A. Well, I tend, if I am passing a forest, I very often
31 stop for a while and go into it. I just have a technique.
32 As English woodlands and forests tend to be rather small,
33 the first think I do is actually walk around the
34 boundaries.
35
36 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Could I stop you there? When you say "a
37 forest", are you including woodlands ----?
38 A. I am including woodland.
39
40 Q. - by Mr. Mallinson's definition?
41 A. Yes.
42
43 Q. I know you were in court for most of his evidence; were you
44 in court when he talked about what he thought of as forest
45 and what he thought of as woodland?
46 A. Yes. I cannot remember what he said precisely, but the
47 English language is very bad at defining these things.
48
49 Q. As an example, I put to him that you might have a wood of a
50 certain -- trees, an area of trees of a certain size on a
51 farm. He said that would be to him woodland rather than
52 forest, unless it was part of a much larger area. But when
53 you speak of forest -----
54 A. It might be easier if I just always call it a
55 woodland. OK. I would call it a forest when it is a
56 plantation and I will tend to call it a woodland when it is
57 an apple forest, if that makes sense, an apple woodland.
58
59 Q. If one way or another you can make it clear what you are
60 referring to; I think it started because I think Mr. Morris
