"What do you want? Do you want people to just not give a shit then? Do you want trees cut down all over and never to be replanted because they're not the origianl species????"

Yes, Lizzie I'm an evil monster and you're a virtuous angel - now go away before I show my evil monster side ...

But before you go I suppose that you haven't noticed, from up there on your pure and virtuous silver cloud, that, given a chance, trees plant themselves - and have been doing for gazillions of years without your intervention. Oh yes, and we're somewhat short of Scarlet Macaws up here in Manchester. And if Chris Packham didn't behave like such an annoying idiot on the telly, I might have more respect for him, and pay some attention to what he says!

Sorry about that, EmmaB ... now where were we? All I can say is that I've observed the effects of mass tree planting over, at least, a 35 year period - and I'm not convinced that it increases biodiversity - in fact, in certain respects, the complete opposite. May I recommend Oliver Rackham's books to you too (particularly, 'Woodlands')? He really does speak a lot of sense on the subject and quite a bit of what he says is (intriguingly) contrary to popular opinion - but is based on sound science.

In the Fens (where I come from originally) there's a new scheme called 'The Great Fen Project'; I haven't got a link to hand but you should be able to Google it. The idea is to re-wet several thousand acres of Fenland - apparently they've attracted Cranes back already! Sounds wonderful - I only wish I had another 100 years (50 would do!).