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Farming v Forestry: As the Independent Panel of Forestry releases its progress report, Charlotte Smith investigates the future of English woodlands.

Earlier this year, the government announced plans to sell off or lease England's public forest estate, the land currently managed by the Forestry Commission. This caused public outcry, so the idea was shelved and the Independent Panel on Forestry was commissioned to report on the future for England's woodlands and the role of the public forest estate. On Thursday they released an interim report which outlines a future for England's public owned forests, and a need for more woodlands for all parts of the UK.

Charlotte meets farmer Mike Deakin in South Derbyshire who's given up 65 acres of his arable land to create new woodlands. And Sophie Churchill from The National Forest Company explains how forest cover within their remit has more than trebled from 6% to 19% since the 1990s.

The chairman of the Independent Panel of Forestry, the Bishop of Liverpool the Right Reverend James Jones tells Farming Today that the forests initially earmarked for sell-off should remain in public hands.

And while in England forest cover is only 8.6%, in Scotland that figure is nearer to 17%. But the Scottish Government say that isn't enough and have set a target of 25% by 2050 which means planting about twenty five thousand acres of trees every year.

Plus Charlotte visits Thames Chase Community Forest. It was set up 20 years ago and is staffed by volunteers to put trees into an area which had lost them. And Caz Graham looks at wood share schemes in Cumbria, asking if woodlands are an untapped fuel resource.

Presented by Charlotte Smith. Produced by Clare Freeman.