Friends of he Dales has for the last three years campaigned for the reduction of plastic in our landscape, specifically tree tubes.

Recently our campaign was endorsed by 11 (out of 12) national park societies and the Campaign for National Parks. The Woodland Trust has ceased to use plastic when it plants trees on its estate. The forestry industry agrees that plastic tubes, a by-product of the fossil fuel industry, are not what we want in our countryside.

It is, therefore, demoralising to come across groups and landowners in the Craven Herald (July 14th), who are planting trees, pictured surrounded by plastic. If the goal is admirable the means are reprehensible given that the millions of plastic tubes equal a minor oil spill and the vast majority will be left to rot into micro plastics or collected for incineration.

There are alternative tubes (NexGen, for example, have tubes made from sheep’s wool) and alternative ways to create woodland. We are calling for a ban on plastic tubes in the national park. Now is the time to end this pollution.

Bruce McLeod

Chair, Friends of the Dales