Day 058 - 30 Nov 94 - Page 55
1 will continue to be cases of this, but now as a consequence
2 of those cases the laws have been both tightened and the
3 regulations applied by the companies themselves have been
4 changed to avoid the practices that allow them to lead to
5 that kind of damage.
6
7 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is silting?
8 A. That is silting. It is not a scavenging situation. It
9 is usually a silting situation.
10
11 MR. MORRIS: Which comes from soil erosion?
12 A. It comes from soil erosion and, secondly, it is short
13 term, but that sort term can affect a whole season's
14 fishing.
15
16 Q. Going on to public access and recreation, do you know what
17 percentage or approximate percentage of commercial forests
18 of the type we are concerned with in the case particularly
19 are accessible to the public, freely accessible to the
20 public?
21 A. Are we talking about the United Kingdom?
22
23 Q. Yes, sorry, the United Kingdom.
24 A. Just over half the total forest of this country is
25 privately owned. The proportions of the privately owned
26 forest which are open to the public I do not have a figure
27 on. In regard to all the Forest Enterprise which all of us
28 own, which represents some 46 per cent of the total forest
29 area, all of it, except in very limited areas whereby in
30 the nature of the lease which applies the Forestry
31 Commission were not entitled to allow people access, all of
32 that property is open to the public.
33
34 Q. Would it be fair to say that private land, private forests,
35 only a tiny percentage are accessible to the public?
36 A. Again, I have no absolute answer to that question. All
37 one can say is that a lot of land which is not owned by the
38 state is owned by county councils, it is owned by other
39 public authorities including the RSPB which own very
40 substantial areas, and there most certainly the RSPB do not
41 allow the public access. But in other regions you will
42 find that enlightened owners have opened their forests more
43 to public access than they have opened their farmland.
44
45 Q. What presumably the RSPB has bought special forest to
46 safeguard wildlife?
47 A. Absolutely right.
48
49 Q. Do you know what percentage approximately of privately
50 managed forests, as opposed publicly managed forests, would
51 be supplying McDonald's, say, in this country?
52
53 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Can you answer that question?
54 A. It is a very specific question. One can only say that
55 of the total supply of timber from our forest lands, and
56 that is the whole of the GB, over 66 per cent comes from
57 state owned forest and the smaller proportion comes from
58 privately owned forest. Timber growing is an industry and
59 a proportion of their product, particularly their
60 thinnings, would certainly be going to pulp mills, but what
