Britain: An official handbook > 1956

INDUSTRY
167
Finance
The Forestry Fund was established in 1919 and from it is paid all the expenditure
of the Forestry Commissioners. The fund is replenished by sums voted annually by
Parliament, receipts from forest produce, rentals and other sources. From 1920 to
I9S4 parliamentary votes totalled £62,436,800 and receipts £20,537,001. Payments
were £82,776,691.
National Forest Parks
The Forestry Commission has opened to the public eight National Forest Parks:
Argyll, Glentrool, Glenmore, and Loch Ard (renamed the Queen Elizabeth Forest
Park to commemorate the Coronation) in Scotland; Hardknott and Forest of Dean
in England; Snowdonia in Wales; and the Border Forest Park (adjoining the North¬
umberland National Park to the westward), which was declared in September 1955
and includes forests on the borders of Northumberland and Cumberland in Eng¬
land and of Roxburghshire in Scotland. The total area of the first seven forest
parks is 290,000 acres; the Border Forest Park covers about 100,000 acres. The forest
parks include planted areas and unplantable moorland and mountains. Camping
facilities are provided inmost of the parks, and the number of overnight stays at the
camping grounds was 75,000 in 1954.
Forestry in Northern Ireland
When the Government of Northern Ireland was formed in 1922, the new Ministry
of Agriculture became the forest authority working with similar powers and duties
to those conferred on the Forestry Commission by the Forestry Act, 1919. At that
time the Ministry took over some 4,000 acres for afforestation of which 700 acres
had been planted by the Forestry Commission.
The State forest area has grown steadily and at a greatly accelerated pace since
the end of the second world war. By 31st March 1955 some 70,000 acres had been
acquired of which nearly 40,000 acres had been planted. The present afforestation
programme provides for the creation within the next fifty years of an area of 150,000
acres of productive State forest with a sustained yield roughly equal to the present
yearly consumption of timber in Northern Ireland, i.e. some 30,000 Standards.
To fulfil this programme, a minimum annual planting rate of 2,500 acres has been
set.
The authority for implementing the State forest policy is the Forestry Act
(Northern Ireland), 1953, which has replaced earlier legislation. This Act provides
the Ministry with powers to acquire and manage land, and to provide financial and
technical assistance for private planting, and it introduces measures for the protec¬
tion of all woodlands, whether State or privately owned, against destruction by
over-cutting, fire or depredation by animals.
Financial provision is made by sums voted annually by Parliament and receipts
from forest produce, rentals and other sources. From 1922 to 1954 expenditure
totalled £2,120,000 and receipts were £830,000. Output and employment are
growing steadily. The area of exploitable private woodlands is at present some
20,000 acres, and private planting, which is gaining impetus, is assisted by schemes
for the supply of young trees at low cost from the Ministry’s nurseries, by grants
towards the cost of the establishment of new plantations, and by free technical
advice.
Northern Ireland Forest Park
In May 1955 Northern Ireland’s first forest park at Tollymore Park, Newcastle,
County Down, was opened to the public. Situated at the foot of the Mourne
M