CAR PARKS will benefit most from the 拢200 000 Woodland Improvement Grant announced last week. Conservationists say that at 8p per hectare, the new grant is too small, as well as being poorly directed. Instead of paying for work to improve woodland habitats, the grant will be spent on car parks, signs and picnic areas 鈥� to improve public access to woodlands
鈥淲e were looking for a lot more than this,鈥� says Martin Mathers, forest policy officer with the World Wide Fund for Nature. He says the Forestry Authority, part of the Forestry Commission, had assured him that the scheme would pay for clearing invading trees such as laurel and making conifer plantations friendlier to wildlife.
The grant is 鈥減athetic鈥�, says Peter Wilson, chief executive of the Timber Growers鈥� Association. 鈥淭his will do nothing for woodland management at all.鈥�
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Roger Herbert, the Forestry Authority official in charge of grants and licences, says the focus on public access is only the first of a series of woodland projects. 鈥淲e want to move ahead with more projects but we will have to wait for the funding to be available,鈥� he says.