As we all try and struggle through the Winter snap, not many people will know or care much about the National Tree Week (Nov 27 - Dec 5th). The Tree Council, The Woodland Trust and Defra had planned an awareness campaign to encourage the public to plant more trees as the UK is near the bottom of the league when it comes to woodland cover. According to The Tree Council's director general Pauline Buchanan Black (Metro 24 Nov 10) ''Areas where there are more trees have less crime, better health and cleaner air, and higher property values''. The Woodland Trust are planning to double our native woodland cover within 50 years which mean planting 20 million trees per annum. A HUGE target that cannot be done by government and NGOs. We all need to take part in order to protect wildlife, stop flooding, reduce soil erosion, improve air quality and combat rising tempatures in urban areas. ''In Manchester, its been calculated you could lower temperature by 2C by having significant planting of trees'' says Pam Warhurst, chair of Forestry Commission.

So with all these benefits you would expect the government to provide substantial support wouldn't you?

Wrong. The government is actually planning to sell off forest and woodland in England to private developers. ''An unforgivable act of environmental vandalism'' according to Green Party MP Caroline Lucas. If you want to prevent this, go to the online campaign group 38 Degrees and register your voice!!!

For more, go to www.treecouncil.org.uk or sign the petition at www.38degrees.org.uk .