Calls to boost Dales woodland cover

Woodlands cover just 4.45 per cent of the Dales, compared to an average in Great Britain of 13 per cent and in England of 9.9 per cent. The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority and the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust are aiming to plant 200 acres of new trees a year in an effort to tackle the problem.

Now Geoff Garrett, senior trees and woodland officer at the national park authority, has urged landowners to help ensure the saplings are given a chance to grow.

“There is a much greater survival rate planting small saplings rather than planting larger trees but the critical time for them is when they are establishing their root system in the first three years,” he said.

“Studies have shown that, over a five-year period, there is as much as an 8ft difference between weeded and un-weeded trees.

“During that time they rely heavily on the moisture in the ground, so it is vital that they don’t have competition from weeds roots growing around their base.”