Sir – Your feature on wood-burning schemes (Report, January 28) risks misleading well-intentioned people into investment in habitat-burning.
Woodfuel is far from the sustainable, benign resource some imagine. If such things concern you, remember that removing wood from a recovering forest typically depletes the soil of nutrients, depletes the carbon store, depletes the carbon sink, and depletes the protective effect a woodland canopy has on species impacted by heat and drought.
It is illogical to think wildlife is adapted to management – given the short timescales and the needs of the majority of forest species.
Management threatens species – and rewilding, not exploitation, is a solution. A resurgence of woodfuel will make the extinction rate even faster.
Clive Hambler
Cowley
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