A petition has been started to remove a loophole in the 1967 Forestry Act which currently allows licensing for felling operations to take place in England and Wales without regard to the presence of protected species.

The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 provides protection for red squirrels by making it illegal to deliberately kill or injure them, to disturb them while they are using a nest, or to destroy their nests. In spite of this there is a legal anomoly which potentially undermines the conservation of the red squirrel, along with every other rare and endangered forest plant or animal species. Although rare woodland species are protected, the habitat they dwell in is generally not.

Timber harvesting generally requires a licence but under the 1967 Forestry Act, licence applications in England and Wales cannot be refused for “the purpose of conserving or enhancing” flora or fauna (though they can be refused for this purpose in Scotland). No matter how rare, how vulnerable or how much effort has gone into the regional conservation of a species, a licence may not be refused nor can conditions be imposed for this reason. There are no exceptions to this rule. A timber felling licence does not sweep aside the legal protection that animals such as the red squirrel have but the possession of a felling licence opens a loophole because the wildlife legislation protecting the red squirrel provides the defence of “incidental result of an otherwise lawful operation”. So, with a licence in hand, woodlands containing this threatened species can be clear-felled because tree harvesting is a lawful operation.

A small change in the law would allow for better timing, methods and patterns of tree harvesting to be guaranteed in habitats containing any rare species. Additionally, while licensing authorities currently can only assess each felling licence application in isolation, legislative change would enable the cumulative impact of granting a licence to be considered in relation to felling that had previously been approved. This would stop management of rare woodland species on specific sites being at the mercy of timber prices and market economics.

As well as this minor change to the law in England and Wales it is important that before felling licences are issued the forestry authorities throughout the UK give due regard to their duty to conserve and enhance flora and fauna and demonstrate that they have done this. It should not be left to those felling the timber to decide whether to survey for bats, badgers, otters, red squirrels and other protected species. Such action should be mandatory before a felling licence is issued.

Fuller details can be found here and the petition is available on the Parliament UK website here. Please sign it and encourage others to do so and we can get this ridiculous anomaly removed to provide real protection for some of our most iconic and endangered species.