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Home Planet: Rustling Leaves and Coppiced Verges

02/08/2011

Rustling Leaves and Coppiced Verges

BBC Radio 4 - Home Planet, Rustling Leaves and Coppiced Verges

With Richard Daniel. Is it viable to grow coppiced woodland along Britain's roads?

Large amounts of land lie unused alongside Britain's major trunk roads. Would it not be a good idea to grow valuable coppiced woodland on this vacant ground?

Alongside the trunk roads of Britain lie millions of acres of unused land. Would it not be a good idea to plant this ground with coppiced trees, producing a valuable crop where today there is only ungrazed grass? Perhaps they could be planted with poplars, renowned for their distinctive rustling sound. A sound that intrigues one Home Planet listener who asks why it is produced and could wind farm engineers learn a trick or two from these whispering trees? 

A new generation of nuclear reactor powered by the element thorium is being developed in a number of different countries. Would this be a safer alternative to the current uranium based power stations? Should we consider domestic cats as an invasive species and what would have happened if Russia, not America, had landed the first men on the moon?

On the panel this week are Dr Anna Lawrence Head of Social and Economic Research at the Forestry Commission, science writer Ehsan Masood and Professor Philip Stott, an environmental scientist from the University of London. 

The programme is presented by Richard Daniel.


Producer: Toby Murcott 
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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