Mims has joined colleagues in welcoming comments made by Environment Secretary Michael Gove at an event hosted by the Woodland Trust, where he gave a strong indication that the Government’s 25 year plan for the environment, due in the New Year, will tackle the issue of woefully low tree planting.
Commenting Mims said:
“I welcome the words from the Secretary of State, who has proven him to be an excellent Environment Secretary, ridding plastics from our waters, banning the ivory trade in the UK, and increasing the maximum sentence for animal cruelty."
"Our trees provide us with the air that we breathe, many are hundreds of years old, outdating even some of our most well-known churches, and as such we have a duty not just to protect them, but also to grow more of them.”
The Eastleigh MP remains Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Ancient Woodland and Veteran Trees, and works closely alongside Chair of the APPG, the Member of Parliament for Taunton Deane, Rebecca Pow.
Speaking at the event, Mr Gove said:
“There is a responsibility for us to plant for the future. Compare us to the rest of Europe and the amount of woodland cover we have is pathetically small. The rates of tree planting in the UK, and England in particular, have not been good enough.
“There is a beauty and a poetry to a landscape decorated and indeed rooted with trees. If we have a care for our environment and if we have a view of this country that goes beyond the utilitarian and the practical, and which is viewed in a proper sense of beauty and romance and history and a desire to ensure future generations can enjoy what past generations have cherished, then we need to plant more trees.
“And with the publication of our 25 Year Plan for the Environment in the New Year, I hope we can say more on how we intend to meet that ambition. But we won’t be able to meet that ambition without the continued advocacy that comes from the Woodland Trust because it’s only by you holding us to the highest standards that we will make sure that the next generation inherit the woodlands, forests and trees they deserve.”
The speech was met with optimism by the Trust which has been calling for more action on tree planting rates and ancient woodland protection.
Commenting further, Mims said:
“It is poignant that while the Conservative Environment Secretary questions why we have so little woodland when compared to the rest of Europe, locally the Liberal Democrat controlled Eastleigh Borough Council plans to decimate ancient woodland in my Eastleigh constituency.”