The recent news that the Governement is considering moving woodland in England out of state ownership has attracted a great deal of interest in the media.  Concerns range from the possible risks of reducing public access to threats to biodiversity.

However none of the news stories I've seen to date relate to the original purpose of the Forestry Commission, that of "rebuilding and maintaining a strategic timber reserve."  Timber resources had been in decline since the Middles Ages and the First World War highlighted how precarious the situation had become.  Timber imports could not be relied on and so on 1st September 1919 the Forestry Act came into force and the Forestry Commission began the task of reforestation.

So why is our timber reserve relevant in 2011?  We no longer use timber props in trench warfare and there is less demand for timber as fuel for heavy industry.  However, we consume huge amounts of timber products such as paper, card and board.  In 2010 we imported 82% of our wood and with our existing level of land under forest we are unlikely to ever even achieve 25% self-sufficiency. 

I have wondered for some time how we will deal with the inevitable rise in price of plastic and other petroleum derived products and what materials will be used in place of the ubiquitous uPVC.  We already use waste newsprint as insulation material and timber windows and doors are far from new as a concept so timber seems the main possibility.

Perhaps the original motive for the creation of the Forestry Commission still holds true and that as well as considering peak oil and our fuel security we out to be considering the risk of peak timber and planting new forests now to ensure that once again we have a sustainable timber reserve.

Whatever your views please take part in the consultation on the future of the public forest estate.  You have until 24th April 2011 to take part.

To finish a wonderful clip of the poet Robert Frost reading the poem that inspired the title of this post.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/poetryeverywhere/frost.html

 

"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" from THE POETRY OF ROBERT FROST edited by Edward Connery Lathem. Copyright © 1923 1969 by Henry Holt and Company. Copyright © 1951 by Robert Frost

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/statistics

 

When I travelled by train during the recent cold weather I was surprised to see that some smaller streams and rivers had partially frozen.  I don't ever remember seeing this before in the UK.

Most people have heard of the Frost Fairs that were held on the River Thames in London with the last fair being held in 1814.  You can read more about these in Lucy Inglis' excellent blog Georgian London.

I'm not sure why but I'd not heard of the other fairs that were held in the rest of the country. Fairs were held on the rivers Severn and Wye in Worecestershire and the River Tyne in Newcastle into the Victorian era.  Rivers froze over in other major cities, as shown in this wonderful photograph.

The River Thames in Oxford in the 1890s

It is unlikely that any of these rivers will freeze solid again as they have been changed significantly over the last century.  Most rivers in urban areas are far narrower than their natural width as land along the banks has been claimed for development.  Narrowing a river makes it flow faster, which in turn means it is less likely to freeze.

I wasn't quite clear on the exact science behind this so my favourite Twitter scientist @SmallCasserole has helped me here.  Still water settles into layers, so in a pond the top layer can be significantly colder than the bed.  That is how your goldfish can survive underneath the ice in your garden pond.  With no flow there is no mixing of these layers so the top layer can freeze even if the average temperature of the water is above zero.  In a fast flowing river all the layers of water mix together (in river terminology it is "delaminated") so the river is the same temperature throughout.  If the temperature is cold enough any river will freeze however fast it is flowing. 

This wonderful Pathe clip shows that it can get cold enough for Niagra Falls to freeze (short advert at the start)

NIAGARA FALLS FROZEN SOLID