I remember the confusing moment as a child when I realised that all the mammoths were dead, thinking previously that I may have been able to go and see one, like they were only just out of reach. When I saw them in pictures they were amazing and big. Then I met you.
You have been with me all my life, a rising of fear and moments of presence, as a realisation of mortality and revenge. Taking me towards an inevitable future we dare not face directly. We have created it and many of us alive now will witness how the end might come, it has crept inside - we know it. Catching us hiding in the darkness as we feel it approaching. Something heavy is rolling in and taking our breath for itself.
Once you woke me at 3am on my child size bed, heavy as a man and I did not know what to think, seeing nothing but knowing. When you were down at the woods inside the dark house, you took her soul for an afternoon to become her - you saw me looking at you. When you gave it back it didn’t work anymore. Many years later we were in the midnight tunnel and the ghosts of wolves came, dripping and dank with a chill wind, you warmed the air. I saw you.
Do you remember the August afternoon in the field next to the park? I was eight years old. What were you doing? I felt a hanging man behind me, it was visceral and terrifying. When I turned around the absence hung there, sad and empty but the uncanny potential electrified my legs. I knew you could take me to him, now I know I deserved it.
All the bees will be gone and you can bring them to watch me too in the field and the woods, the midnight tunnel - still you were on my bed feeling heavy as a man to a small girl.
In the village where my youngest first lived, you followed me. I had not felt you for years but you are oppressive and still make me breathless, make my legs run and run. I could not run though, not here, you came in through the window as my exhausted body slept and whispered, not long now. The animals became quiet, the man still hanging from the tree by my window trying to take my soul.
Will we kill ourselves in the darkness, to join the mammoth I missed?
The stands, in places are dark and sullenly impressive, gathering me into silent contemplation, a connection to root and soil and a way to breathe and smell. Taking only what is needed, leaving hopeful offerings into the darkness for tomorrow. For tomorrow may be silent.
The UK was the third largest net importer (imports less exports) of forest products in 2014, behind China and Japan — Forestry Statistics 2016
“Its rather a mysterious sort of wood
Don’t you think so Beth?”
“Well, the trees are rather thick, but they seem about the same as any others”
“They don’t quite”
“The noise the leaves make is different, listen,
It’s almost as if they were really talking to one another”
“Whispering secrets - real secrets, that we just can’t understand”
Wisha-wisha-wisha-wisha.
The Enchanted Wood, Enid Blyton, 1939
Only about 6 per cent. of the area of the
British Isles is woodland, and the greatest
density of woodland is in the north and east of
Scotland and the south-eastern counties of
England. Home grown timber provides only a small proportion of our national requirements and the remainder has to be imported. The Forestry Commission is planning to increase our woodland area by 50 per cent. over the next fifty years, when, it is estimated it will
provide about one-fifth of the timber we need.
The Geography of the British Isles, 1968
The key points from the latest releases are:
The woodland area in the United Kingdom in 2016 is 3.16 million hectares: 1.35 million hectares (43%) are independently certified as sustainably managed.
Six thousand hectares of new woodland were created in the UK in 2015-16.
10.8 million green tonnes of UK roundwood (softwood and hardwood) were delivered to primary wood processors and others in 2015, representing a 6% decrease from the previous year.
Wood products imported into the UK in 2015 were valued at £7.5 billion and included 6.3 million cubic metres of sawnwood, 3.2 million cubic metres of wood-based panels, 6.5 million tonnes of wood pellets and 5.9 million tonnes of paper.
A total of 238 projects were registered under the Woodland Carbon Code at 30 June 2016, covering an area of 16.0 thousand hectares of woodland and projected to sequester 5.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Over one half of the UK population had visited woodland in the last few years.
The Annual Business Survey reported average employment in 2014 of 16 thousand in forestry and 27 thousand in primary wood processing.
Gross Value added (GVA) in primary wood processing (sawmilling, panels and pulp & paper) was £1.39 billion in the UK in 2014. GVA in forestry was £0.58 billion.
The UK was the third largest net importer (imports less exports) of forest products in 2014, behind China and Japan.
Coverage: United Kingdom
Geographical breakdown: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Publications:
Forestry Statistics 2016
Does everything exist on the internet in a way.
http://libraryofbabel.info/bookmark.cgi?jodorotheasmithstand
cut and paste
