Euro Plant A Tree Initiative!!

[old tup]

As I travel up and down our motorways in the last few years I can,t help noticing quite a lot of tree planting done by farmers some in large strips some in full fields next to the motorways!.I mentioned this to friends and one said "Don,t think they do it from the kindness of their hearts they are paid £100 a tree each year for 10 years by the Eurozone!".This would be a nice little earner if a farmer has a field stood doing nothing productive,the caravan site I used to be on was developed from a farm, the owner planted 20000 trees at the start of work that should have helped with the expenses!.I wonder if what my friend has claimed is true,can anyone shed a little light on this subject?.:confused:

[tzijlstra]

Farmers get subsidy for what is known as wildlife management - creating habitats for species under threat. In the past they received a per-tree subsidy but I believe this has now been folded into the habitat-management scheme.

 

EU agriculture subsidies are messy and not transparent, but this is one aspect of it that I think should be encouraged, the biggest reason for many native species being under threat is that farmers didn't have any incentive to protect habitats.

 

Also: The situation in the UK is that the government decides how these subsidies are spent, it is easy to blame the EU, but ultimately the decision lies in Westminster.

[Mr Clowning]

Wildlife corridors, hedges and the like, I think its been around for years.

[anywebsite]

It was after the butter mountain, etc. They decided, rather than stop subsidising farmers, instead they'll dole out our hard earned for producing nothing, just for being a land owner, rather than have guaranteed minimum prices, etc. It's slightly less wasteful than the old subsidy system.

 

Of course they could just stop farm subsidies & cut all the waste, but the French would probably object.

 

No doubt it's a nice little earner for somebody like Prince Charles (he's on over half a million of EU dole money a year).