Mohammad Asghar AM has called on the Welsh Government to provide assurances that the closure of Cwmcarn Forest Drive is necessary to tackle the spread of larch disease in Wales.
His call came during questions to the Minister for Natural Resources in the National Assembly.
The Conservative AM for South Wales East said:“More than three thousand people have joined a campaign to stop Natural Resources Wales (NRW) closing Cwmcarn Forest Drive in order to chop down thousands of disease ridden larch trees.
“They claim NRW’s approach to this problem has shown a number of inconsistencies and that there are alternative roads that could be used to remove the trees rather than close this major tourist attraction.
“I am calling on the Minister to provide assurances that the closure of Cwmcarn Forest Drive is necessary to prevent the spread of larch disease.”
In response, the Minister for Natural Resources, Carl Sargeant, said: “I met with [Islwyn AM] Gwyn Price – indeed, I know that he was at a public meeting only last week regarding the Cwmcarn road network and the issues surrounding this. What we have to do is deal with the issue of larch disease. If we do not do that, there will be no larch in Britain in the long term.
“We have to deal with this issue. I am more than happy to look at the issue regarding the network provided to secure this process, but it is a matter for NRW. This is something that we have to consider, and I am very aware of the case, as presented to me by Gwyn Price and, indeed, the member most recently.”
This is a mess, the Larch trees have a disease so most of them have to be removed; they are no longer required anyway as they were intended for pit props. The organisation called National Resource Wales wants to replace them with the equally unwanted and foreign Douglas Fir, at the same time destroying the roads that we do need to attract visitors to the woods.
Why not gradually remove the Larch, not an attractive nor a native Welsh species, whilst keeping the woods open. At the same time plant Oak, Hornbeam, Ash, Holly and several other species to replace them. In doing so the Larch may suffer further, due to disease, but the attraction remains open. I am not all that bothered if most of Larch disappears but would prefer to bequeath our grandchildren a living Welsh forest rather than a woods full of Douglas Fir without any possibility of road access.
I am getting the imprsssion that the people in charge of the Welsh Assembly would not recognise a native Welsh tree if you smacked them across the head with an oaken stick.