PLANS to cut down about 200 mature oak trees in the Wyre Forest are part of normal forest management to improve growth, a conservation body has said.

Posters by an anonymous protester have been appearing around the forest labelling the proposals as “environmental vandalism” and accusing the Forestry Commission of selling the timber for profit.

The posters also say local residents should have been consulted before the decision was made to cut the trees.

One of the posters quotes a local resident as saying: “The Wyre Forest is a natural gem, and it is difficult to see how the Forestry Commission is suited to managing it sensitively, without economics guiding its actions when its most obvious actions are totally destructive.

“The fact that such an important decision can be made without any form of consultation, shows how out of touch and arrogant the Forestry Commission is.

“It simply doesn’t recognise the affection and commitment that people have for our forests.”

A commission spokesman said the work is a normal part of forest management and would have been listed in forest management plans.

She said: “The work is a thinning of the oak belts. This is an ongoing programme and we thin these areas, and all our broadleaf woodlands, every 10 years.”

“The trees marked for felling are about 50 to 70 years old and are midway through their normal forestry rotation. Mainly, we are taking out the smaller, poorer form trees to enable the remaining trees to grow to maturity.

“As well as carrying out a normal thinning, the operation also seeks to open up nearby cleared ground to more light. Oak will regenerate naturally in Wyre Forest but it needs high levels of light to achieve this.

The commission said increased light will increase the woodland flora and invertebrate populations.

The spokesman said: “Wyre is a very important forest for biodiversity, especially for invertebrates, and we have a large programme of ongoing work that has led to increases in, for instance, rare butterfly species.

“Wyre is as a stronghold for the pearl bordered fritillary with one of the largest, increasing populations in England.”