Decline of the county’s trees

Nick Atkinson of the Woodland Trust was one of the speakers
at last week's at last week's Greater Lincolnshire Nature Partnership conference in Lincoln.

From research with old maps, it is all too evident that the county's treescape has "changed profoundly over the past 150 years".

Relatively recent factors have included Dutch elm disease, the great storm of 1987 and now ash dieback disease.

The implications for songbirds are obvious.

"We've got to find ways to turn things around,"said Nick

The trust's access standard is for everyone to live within 500 metres of a two-hectare woodland and within 4km of a 20-hectare woodland.