Month: Sep 2021

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I can’t believe that September is nearly over. Roll on October, a month which will see our Missy Moo turn 13, where the clocks go back, we purchase and carve pumpkins, kick the piles of fallen leaves, we see the night’s draw in and we have to consider the wearing of raincoats and umbrellas. Out comes my soup recipes and knitted jumpers.
Today we have bright sunshine and I shall bathe in her glorious warmth and enjoy a beautiful autumn day.
Print by artist Sarah Bays.

Share your colourful #AutumnLeafWatch photos for a chance to win

Enter our photo competition to win £200 worth of gift cards to spend on new photography kit at Wex Photo Video. The winner and two runner-ups will also receive Membership to a forest site of their choice.

To be in with a chance of winning, head to one of our forests, get snapping and share your autumnal photos using #AutumnLeafWatch on Twitter and Instagram or by posting them directly on to our Facebook page.

We want to see how autumn captivates your senses. Photos can be landscapes, macros, portraits, selfies, wildlife – if it’s autumnal, we want to see it! Check out our autumn pages for inspiration. Please note that we give preference to photos taken at Forestry England sites.

During the competition, a selection of the entries will be shared across our social media channels, and we will select a final shortlist of favourites. The public will have the power to choose which photo they want to win by visiting our Facebook page and ‘liking’ their favourite. The winner will be the photo with the most reactions!

Competition Terms and Conditions:

1. Valid entries are those photos shared on Instagram, on Twitter, or submitted onto the Forestry England Facebook page, including the hashtag #AutumnLeafWatch – posted after 13th September 2021.
2. The winner will receive £200 worth of gift cards for Wex Photo Video and a Forestry England Membership of their choice. Two runners up will receive Forestry England Membership also. 
3. There is no cash alternative to the prizes stated, and the prizes are not transferable. The prizes cannot be used in conjunction with any other offers. No part or parts of the prize may be substituted for other benefits, items or additions. 
4. The closing time and date for the competition is midnight 27 October 2021.
5. By posting any images as entries to the competition, you are agreeing that the photo can be used by Forestry England as part of its future autumn promotion on national and local digital channels, and also on the Friends of Westonbirt digital channels.
6. During the competition, a selection of the entries will be shared across our social media channels. Forestry England will then pick their ten favourite images on or around 29 October 2021. The public will pick the winning photo from 29 October to midday on 5 November on the Forestry England Facebook page. The winning photo will be the one that receives the most ‘reactions’. There will be two runners up. If winners are unable to claim the prize within 72 hours of being contacted following the vote, or if unable to take the prize for whatever reason, the prize will be gifted to the photo with the next highest number of ‘reactions’.
7. Forestry England’s decision is final. No correspondence will be entered in to.
8. The competition is open to UK residents, except employees of any party connected with the promotion.
9. Entry implies acceptance into these terms and conditions. The entry instructions form part of the terms and conditions. By entering, you accept to and be bound by the terms and conditions.
10. Forestry England reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater value should circumstances outside its control make this necessary.
11. Forestry England reserves the right to cancel, amend, withdraw, terminate or temporarily suspend this promotion in the event of unforeseen circumstances or technical reason outside its control, with no liability to any entrants or third parties but will use all reasonable endeavours to avoid consumer disappointment.

Reference ~ https://www.forestryengland.uk/autumn/photo-competition?utm_campaign=national_newsletter_220921&utm_medium=email&utm_source=national_newsletter

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• The ‘State of the World’s Trees’ report uses data from 500 international experts  
• The report has been published by Botanic Gardens Conservation International
• Researchers assessed the 58,497 species of tree — finding 17,500 to be at risk
• And some 440 tree species are represented only by 50 or fewer individuals

Human activities like agriculture, livestock farming and logging are putting nearly a third of the world’s tree species at risk of extinction, a report has warned. There are more than twice as many threatened trees than at risk birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles combined.

More than 500 experts from 60 institutions collected data over five years for the ‘State of the World’s Trees’ report from Botanic Gardens Conservation International.

The researchers assessed the 58,497 species of tree that grow across the globe — finding that around 17,500 are on the worrying path towards extinction.

These include well-known species such as magnolia, oaks, maple and ebonies.

Hundreds of species are teetering on the brink, the report warned — like the Menai whitebeam, which is represented by only 30 trees in its North Wales home.

One in every five tree species are directly used by humans for applications including food, fuel, horticulture, medicines and timber.

However, over-exploitation and mismanagement is harming many species — and at least 142 have been recorded as recently going extinct.

Another human-driven threat is climate changes, which is altering the habitat ranges of various species — with cloud forest species in Central America at particular risk. Climate change is also exacerbating the threat of invasive species such as ash die back which is expected to kill about 80% of the UK’s ash trees.

At least 180 tree species are being directly threatened by sea level rise and weather extremes, the report noted, including magnolias in the Caribbean.

Meanwhile, increasing risks of fire are presenting major threats to various trees in Madagascar and the oak species of the United States. 

More than 440 tree species have fewer than 50 individuals left alive in the wild. One example is Malawi’s Mulanje cedar, which is now represented by all of a few trees.

The highest proportion of threatened trees can be found on islands — including 69 per cent of those growing on the UK Overseas Territory of St Helena in the southern Atlantic and 59 per cent of those found on Madagascar.

In Europe, 58 per cent of native trees are threatened with extinction in the wild, with whitebeams and rowan the most at risk — while Brazil has the highest number of threatened tree species.

Dipterocarpaceae species are at risk from palm oil plantations in Borneo, while timber extraction threatens ebony in Madagascar as well as mahogany and rosewood species across the Caribbean and Brazil.

Magnolia and camellia species are threatened by unsustainable collection for commercial uses, while pests and diseases are causing severe decline to ash populations in both the UK and North America.

Meanwhile, oaks — particularly in South and Central America — are being threatened by deforestation.

There were some glimmers of hope in the report, however, which found that 64 per cent of all tree species can be found in at least one protected area and 30 per cent can be found in botanic gardens, seed banks, or other such collections.

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Botanic Gardens Conservation International is calling on governments and experts to take various measures to better protect the world’s tree species.

These include extending protected area coverage for threatened tree species, ensuring all at-risk trees are, where possible, conserved in botanic gardens and seed banks and to increase public and corporate funding for the issue.

In the report, the organisation also urges the expansion of tree planting schemes — with targeted planting of threatened and native species — and increased global collaboration to tackle tree extinction.

‘This report is a wake-up call to everyone around the world that trees need help,’ said Botanic Gardens Conservation International secretary general Paul Smith.

‘Every tree species matters — to the millions of other species that depend on trees, and to people all over the world.

‘For the first time, thanks to the information provided by the state of the world’s trees report, we can pinpoint exactly which tree species need our help.’

This he added, will allow ‘policymakers and conservation experts to deploy the resources and expertise needed to prevent future extinctions.’

The “huge interest” in tree planting schemes to offset corporate or individual emissions is an opportunity to use threatened species rather than more common eucalyptus or spruce, Mr Smith said.

“Ironically, some of those threatened species are actually threatened by tree planting programmes by people planting monoculture exotics,” he added.

‘For the first time, the “State of the World’s Trees” provides a comprehensive breakdown of our world’s trees,’ said the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s species survival commission chairman, Jon Paul Rodriguez.

‘Knowing where they are and why they are threatened is the first step towards acting for their conservation,’ he added.

“Despite the worrying data, I look forward to future state of the world’s trees reports.

‘I hope to learn of the increase in the number of known species and the decline in the proportion facing high extinction risk, due to the success of premeditated, coordinated global conservation action.’

MAP REVEALS THE DEVASTATING RATE OF DEFORESTATION AROUND THE GLOBE

The destruction caused by deforestation, wildfires and storms on our planet have been revealed in unprecedented detail.

High-resolution maps released by Google show how global forests experienced an overall loss of 1.5 million sq km during 2000-2012.

For comparison, that’s a loss of forested land equal in size to the entire state of Alaska.

The maps, created by a team involving Nasa, Google and the University of Maryland researchers, used images from the Landsat satellite.

Each pixel in a Landsat image showing an area about the size of a baseball diamond, providing enough data to zoom in on a local region.

Before this, country-to-country comparisons of forestry data were not possible at this level of accuracy.

‘When you put together datasets that employ different methods and definitions, it’s hard to synthesise,’ said Matthew Hansen at the University of Maryland.

Reference https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/58394467.amp. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/01/nearly-third-worlds-trees-threatened-extinction/amp/