To support the campaign, please e-mail Elin Jones AM at: Correspondence.Elin.Jones@wales.gsi.gov.uk
Please give your name and address to reassure Elin Jones that you are genuinely a Welsh voter. If you prefer, you could write to her on paper: Elin Jones AM, Minister for Rural Affairs, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NQ.
Ideally, it’s best to write your own letter, maybe using the text below as a model. But if you are unsure as to what to say, you could simply cut and paste the text below, personalising it as appropriate.
If you receive an interesting reply, I wonder if you could let me know by email or letter? Many thanks.
Rory Francis, Public Affairs Officer Wales
Suggested text
Dear Elin Jones
Congratulations and welcome!
I am writing to congratulate you on taking up responsibility for forestry in Wales, to welcome you to welcome you to your new brief and to wish you every success in this new area of work.
I am writing also to urge you to make use of your position to make a real difference for Wales ancient woodlands, by adopting a comprehensive policy of restoring those ancient woodlands that have been planted with conifers – sometimes known as planted ancient woodland sites, or PAWS.
Ancient woods are our richest, most important sites for a vast range of insects, birds, animals, flowers and trees and are home to more threatened species than any other UK habitat. Ancient woodlands are one of the glories of our natural heritage; they are places of inordinate beauty, reservoirs of evidence for environmental change, archaeology and economic history. We simply cannot afford to lose them.
But as a result of government policy between the 1930s and the 1980s, around 24,000 hectares of Wales’ ancient woodland were planted with non-native trees, mostly conifers. The communities of plants and animals that depend on ancient woodland were devastated if not by felling and clearance using heavy machinery, then by chemicals used to prevent regrowth, by the dense shade cast by closely planted new trees, or smothering from deep layers of conifer needles.
Research shows that in the next ten years most of the conifers planted on ancient woodland sites will reach maturity. If they are felled and replaced with more conifers then the wildlife dependent on ancient woodland will not survive.
The Forestry Commission Wales has done some excellent work restoring ancient woodland sites, working with Coed Cadw (the Woodland Trust) on projects like Restoring our Forgotten Inheritance and the Meirionnydd Oakwoods Habitat Management Project. However, FCW does not yet have a comprehensive, consistent policy of restoring ancient woodland planted with conifers, even those which are part of the Assembly’s woodland estate.
Will you make use of your position as forestry minister to adopt a comprehensive policy of restoring ancient woodland planted with conifers?
Many thanks for taking the time to read this email.
Yours sincerely
Your name and address
