14 DAY TRIAL // A forest that has been around for hundreds of years now might soon be destroyed, and not just any way, but by having bulldozers trample all over it. Ironically enough, it would appear that, if the forest is indeed to be destroyed sometime in the near future, this will happen in order to accommodate a motorway petrol station.
Daily Mail informs that the forest in question is named Smithy Woods and that it sits close to the city of Sheffield in the United Kingdom. It was planted back in the 12th century, which means that some of its trees are over 800 years old.
According to the same source, a formal planning application concerning the destruction of 20 acres of this old forest and the construction of a motorway petrol station in the patch of land thus obtained has recently been submitted by Extra MSA Group.
Before anyone starts thinking that the folks at said firm must surely be out of their minds if they expect somebody to let them replace a forest that is hundreds of years old with a petrol station, it must be said that, unfortunately, Extra MSA Group could actually get what it wants.
This is thanks to a little planning loophole commonly referred to as biodiversity offsetting. This fairly fancy phrase means that developers can destroy certain habitats provided that they are ready and willing to invest time and money in recreating them in some other location.
More precisely, Extra MSA Group hopes to come out of this development endeavor clean slate and without sporting any scarlet letters by planting twice as many trees as its motorway petrol station will destroy somewhere close to Smithy Woods.
Thus, it wants to establish a brand new 39-acre woodland that will be home to approximately 60,000 new trees and that the firm says will be open for recreational use to anyone who feels that they could use a break from their daily routine.
The only problem is that, according to several green groups, there is no way planting a bunch of trees can make up for destroying 20 acres of centuries-old forest. “This application is a cynical attempt to overcome objections to the proposed destruction of ancient woodland by making use of ‘offsetting’,” said Penistone and Stocksbridge MP Angela Smith.
Furthermore, “Local people, however, will not be easily bought and will fight hard to defend this precious habitat. Once lost, this woodland can never be replaced. Surely it’s time to strengthen the protection of ancient woodland, given that we’ve lost so much of it already; what we have left, we must conserve rather than destroy.”
A decision concerning whether or not Extra MSA Group should be allowed to move forward with its initiative has not yet been made. When this happens, be sure you will learn about it here.