HAVING been regular visitors to Kinver Edge over the last 30 years we were, on a recent visit, horrified to see the destruction and devastation being caused by the current tree felling exercise.

All, we believe, in the name of restoring the area to lowland heathland – a type of habitat that has apparently been in steep decline in the UK over the last 200 years.

The notion that we need to return to heathlands seems rather misguided as heathland originally provided grazing for cattle, materials for crafts such as broom making as well as for fuel. It seems none of these are ever likely to occur or be relevant today.

This area of outstanding beauty with an established ecosystem and biodiversity is now being destroyed so that a much rarer habitat can be restored which we are led to believe will allow some rare species to survive and “hopefully” flourish.

It seems to us that we are destroying the habitat for other, just as important organisms – such as fungi and mushrooms. Fungi, and specifically their root system mycelium, are just as important as animals and flowering plants.

We need to be aware that the fungi present in woodlands have built up over many years and potentially destroying that habitat will damage the delicate ecological balance.

George and Gosia Marks Stourbridge