Could this be the end of Husky racing in our forests

[meeshsalts]

Found this on another site Don't know how it will effect people wanting to race Huskies

For sale: Britain's forests and seas, and David Cameron's claims to be green

Can you hear the silence of the huskies? When he was rebranding the Tory party, David Cameron promised us he would lead “the greenest government everâ€Â. Since he came to power, he has broken every environmental promise he made – and then gone much further. He has opened up the coasts of Britain to the deep-sea drilling that worked so well in the Gulf of Mexico, and put a For Sale sign outside every single remaining forest in England. Yes, as his own environment minister puts it, Cameron is determined to achieve “disposal of public forest†– and the timber companies and holiday-parks are preparing their opening bids.

In order to raise £2bn, the government is selling all 650,000 acres of our forests – a privatization that even Margaret Thatcher blanched at. These are the most popular outdoor spaces in Britain, visited more than our beaches. They are the last place where millions of people can go to escape their anxieties and glimpse what Britain looked like to our ancestors for millions of years. They are the site of some of our most potent national myths: what would Robin Hood say if he knew Sherwood Forest itself was now on the market? Is Cameron really taking the Sheriff of Nottingham as his role model?

This is in direct contradiction to what Cameron told us he would do before the election. In 2007, talking about forests, he promised he would “take a more effective and strategic approach to safeguarding a priceless - and irreplaceable - natural asset.'' He said the countries that “are cutting forests down†are “barmy.''

The government says there is no danger to the forests in selling them to timber companies and the other highest bidders. They say they will still be standing, they will be cared for as well, and the public will have just as much access. Does this match the facts?

It’s true that once a company has bought a forest, they will still need planning permission to cut the woods down. This is a crucial brake. But – wait – Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, has just announced his is “remov[ing] the structures of control†and making it “much easier†to get planning permission across the country. Planning is being massively deregulated, just as the forests are sold. Not every buyer will cut them down. But some will. Why do the Tories think timber companies want to buy them – to abandon the work they do in every other country on earth and become druids?

Confronted with this point, the government admits there is a “possibility of established forest being bought by energy companies who would proceed to chip it all for energy recovery†– and then swiftly insists there is nothing to worry about.

The forests that remain will be less well-maintained, and harder for the public to access. The Forestry Commission looks after our woods today, and 100 percent of it is maintained to the international Forest Stewardship Standard that keeps it healthy and alive. By contrast, only 25 percent of private forests in England are looked after this way. After the sale, they will become more degraded, less biodiverse, and less likely to survive for the long term.

And you will find it harder to get to them. The government says that the legislation passed in 2000 granting us all the ‘Right to Roam’ will mean we can enjoy them just the same. But the public only has a right to access woodland classified as “freeholdâ€Â. You have no right to access the woodland held as “leasehold.†According to the Ecologist, half of privately owned woodland is barred to the public.

It gets worse still. The Forestry Commission works very hard to make our woods accessible to everyone. They build car-parks, bike-tracks, visitor centres, picnic areas. When the land is privatized, most of that will go. They can put a massive fence around the forest, they just can’t put up a sign that say ‘Keep Out.’ Look at what happened to the Riggs Woods in the Lake District, sold a few months ago. The car-park has been shut down, the picnic area has been dismantled, the visitors centre closed, and all you see when you go there now is a large bolted gate that, legally, you are allowed to clamber over.

And for what? To preserve our forests costs just 30p per taxpayer per year. Selling them off forever will raise just half of the sum that one corporation – Vodafone – was let off after the Tories came to power from what Private Eye says was its total tax liability. (Vodafone denies this figure).

So if you go down to the woods today, you’ll find the best metaphor for Cameronism. Change your party’s logo to a lovely green tree – then sell off all the real trees to corporations. Oh, and then say you are “empowering volunteers†by doing it. The Prime Minister has said the forest sell-off “empowers local communities†to take over the forests for themselves as part of a “Big Society.†Yet sources within the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs say that – unsurprisingly – only about 1 percent of the sales are anticipated to go to local co-operatives or green groups. The “Big Society†is a fluffy fig-leaf for dismantling and demolition.

But – amazingly – this may not be the biggest environmental vandalism of the Cameron years. The Conservatives have just authorized the launching of deepwater drilling off the coast of Shetland. The White House investigations are only now uncovering quite how disastrous this tactic was in the Gulf of Mexico – but it would be worse in the Shetlands, where the very harsh, cold and windy conditions would make a clean-up dramatically harder and more expensive. It would have to be bigger too: Chevron has admitted if things went wrong it would release 77,000 barrels a day, 25 percent more than went into the Gulf.

Britain’s Health and Safety Executive warned that serious accidents on British oil rigs almost doubled last year. These are the very warning signs that preceded the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. Even if the oil is excavated “safelyâ€Â, it will then release huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and destabilze our climate even more – which doesn’t sound very safe to me.

As if that wasn’t enough, Cameron has also authorized drilling for shale gas off the coast of Blackpool – an extremely controversial practice that is suspected by many scientists of poisoning water supplies in several sites in the US.

Britain’s forests and seas don’t belong to David Cameron. They belong to us. As the former Forest of Dean district council chairman Bill Hobman says: “Mr Cameron should show us the deeds to the Forest. How can they sell something they don't own?... This is a wonderful part of the world and shouldn't be auctioned off to the highest bidder to have their own little bit of heaven. We will fight this all the way.†The fight-back will be ferocious, and, like the inspiring fight against super-rich tax-dodgers, it unites people from the Tory shires with amazing left-wing activist groups like 38 Degrees that are organizing thousands of people to protest.

This is a fight about what the British people value as a country. Do we want to preserve Britain’s most beautiful places – forests and seas that were alive for our distant ancestors, and should be alive for our distant descendants – or do we want a few rich corporations to make a little bit more money from destroying them? David Cameron has made his choice. Now we need to make ours.

To join the fight to save Britain's forests, click here.

[aMartyrsHeart]

That is terribly heartbreaking. People are going to realize sooner or later that we can't BREATHE without our trees.

[lebe03]

It'sa typical half baked idea from yet another of our half baked governments. Maybe the british public should put the houses of parliament, downing street and all other government buildings up for sale and sack all the MP's which would save billions of pounds that these idiots waste.

[natalie]

Signed!

[Rob]

That is terribly heartbreaking. People are going to realize sooner or later that we can't BREATHE without our trees.

Doesn't plankton in the Ocean produce most of Earths oxygen its still wrong to chop down forests though for various other reasons. Yet another stupid idea from the stupid goons running this country.

[aMartyrsHeart]

IDk rob, never heard that before. But I'm pretty sure that without trees producing oxygen, that the quality of the oxygen leftover would suffocate us. I will look that up about the plankton though, that is interesting.

[Ron Tao&Sky]

Signed and mass emailed over 2000 members on my Airgun Forum..........Ron.

[Lil Miss Bump]

wow,what a horrible thing to read :-(

[Rosemary]

I am not British,so shouldn't actually say anything, but, there is no way on earth I would sit back on this one. I would fight them. What they take away from you now, you will never be able to get back. The government works for you - stand up to them and fight for your heritage.

[KERNOWHUSKIES]

Hmmmmmm......................

[SarahNukka&Shadow]

IDk rob, never heard that before. But I'm pretty sure that without trees producing oxygen, that the quality of the oxygen leftover would suffocate us. I will look that up about the plankton though, that is interesting.

Algee in the words water produces an estimated 95% of the Earths oxygen.

Having said that it doesnt make what Camaron is trying to do any better.. I have signed and shared on FB! FIGHT FOR OUR COUNTRY!!!!

[aMartyrsHeart]

Very cool! I learned something new.

But I think I would still die, I love trees so much. Plus we'd have less lumber and shade and more erosion and wind storms.

[Staceybob]

Signed and shared on facebook!

There is no other word to describe this idea other than horrific.

Stacey xxx