As a candidate, I get many requests from members of different interest groups to announce their support for a particular cause. So far the greatest number have come from members of the Woodland Trust.
This is an excellent cause (as well as, clearly, being very well organised). It campaigns for an increase in British woodlands, which is a splendid and obvious goal. Our countryside is bare of trees, compared not only to our European neighbours and to our own historical past.
This is an excellent time to advance the idea. Farming is moving away from the goal of extracting maximum food from every acre by application of expensive fertilisers and pesticides towards a model that gives more prominence to the stewardship of the countryside for all. We are looking for stimulus schemes to avoid recession. The time looks right for large scale tree planting - with native deciduous species, not just forestry commission style pinewoods. The Liberal Democrats already have a policy of doubling the UK woodland cover by 2050.
The hills above Macclesfield were covered with forests in the not too distant past. They could be again.
