Wildlife in depression, C.1870–1940^153were the main species used in upland locations; in the lowlands there was a
greater emphasis on Scots pine, later on Corsican pine.^83 In fact, the initial
plantings in some areas also included a significant proportion of indigenous
hardwoods, principally oak and beech. In 1935 1,186 acres (480 hectares) of
conifers were planted in Breckland, but as many as 428 acres (150 hectares)
of hardwood trees. But it was difficult to establish hardwoods on heaths
and moors and they grew more slowly than conifers; their use was soon
abandoned and many existing plantings failed.^84 They remained significant
in some areas, however, as in Breckland, where they were planted in strips
beside the principal roads and railways. Here they still serve to provide
an illusion of a forest more mixed in character than it actually is. In part
these plantings were established to reduce the risk of fires spreading from
the sparks emanating from trains or steam-driven road vehicles. Although
indigenous woodland, in Oliver Rackham’s memorable phrase, ‘burns like
wet asbestos’,^85 young conifer plantations are highly combustible, and the
new forests experienced a series of massive fires in the 1920s and early
30s. But the deciduous trees were also intended to reduce public opposition
to the Commission’s activities. Most of the districts targeted for planting
were open landscapes, valued by ramblers and others. The new plantations,
uniform and largely composed of alien species, appeared unpleasant
and visually intrusive. In the 1930s the Commission’s plans to plant 300
hectares in Upper Eskdale in the Lake District led to a prolonged campaign
of opposition which culminated in a successful public subscription to raise
the £2 per acre compensation required for not planting the land, much of
which subsequently passed to the National Trust. The dispute also led to a
voluntary agreement negotiated between the Commission and the Council
for the Protection of Rural England – of which more later – which restricted
the establishment of plantations within a central block of c.300 square miles
of the Lakes.^86
The sheer scale of the plantings, which completely transformed vast
swathes of open countryside, was a major reason for opposition. Julian
Tennyson described in 1939 how:
The Commission has worked its way steadily through the centre of
Breckland, buying and leasing estates, removing boundary after boundary,
until now there is scarcely a couple of miles of ground left unplanted
between Lakenheath Warren and Elveden in Suffolk and the road from
Methwold to West Wretham in Norfolk. It has swept everything before
it: the heaths and brecks in its paths have disappeared for ever. Small
wonder that those who loved the old spirit of Breckland should complain
that they can now scarcely even recognize their own country.^87There were also concerns about the impact of afforestation on biodiversity,
although this in fact was complex, as it changed significantly over time.
In heathland districts the stone curlew nested with some success in young