What consideration has the Minister given to the removal of trees along trunk roads and motorways and its impact on climate change?
In addition to tackling climate change through carbon sequestration, trees along the trunk road and motorway network have a vital role to play in their contribution to biodiversity and enhancing the landscape character of our roads. For those reasons the need for any tree removal is carefully considered and balanced against our duties under the Highways Act to maintain a safe road network.
Through our ‘Ash dieback Action Plan’, we are currently managing the impacts of Ash dieback disease across the motorway and trunk road network in Wales. This devastating tree disease is affecting 100,000s of roadside trees of all ages and sizes which need to be managed for safety to protect road users, pedestrians and those whose properties neighbour our network. Our action plan includes a replanting strategy to mitigate the impacts of the disease. This includes planting a wider diversity of native tree and shrub species to improve the biodiversity and resilience of our roadside plantations in the longer term.
Over the past 2 years we have planted in the region of 55,000 new trees and shrubs along the Welsh trunk road and motorway network, and this work will continue to replace trees that have to be removed for safety reasons.
In addition to this, within the recently published Wales Transport Strategy, we committed to examining and resetting our approach to biodiversity and are currently producing our own Biodiversity Plan for the trunk road and motorway network. This will build on the existing Green Corridors initiative and the previous Trunk road estate Biodiversity Action Plan (TreBAP) and will aim to further embed biodiversity and climate change resilience in our decision-making and actions.