I AGREE wholeheartedly with Bruce McLeod when he called for a total ban on planting trees in plastic tubes in the national park, or indeed anywhere (Time to end plastic tree tube pollution, Craven Herald letters, July 21).

I think it's utterly hypocritical to extol the multitude virtues gained by planting trees in our landscapes and then to encase them in plastic tubes, when we are well aware of the pollution created by such tubes. I fully accept that there are economic issues to consider - the plastic tube industry generates well over £10 million per annum. That is not a viable reason however for polluting our landscapes visually and physically.

There are viable alternatives, as pointed out by Bruce, and there are also planting techniques that can be utilised where no tubes are required. There is no creativity in just carrying on with business as usual - society has to change and change quickly if we are to reduce our impact on this world of ours for the up-and-coming generations.

These issues will be discussed at a Plastics - Trees and Woodland Conference being put on by the Forestry Plastic Working Group on 2nd November at the Leeds City Museum. If you are interested, they can be contacted on fpwg@ydmt.org

Prof. Alan Simson

Skipton