A MAJOR tree replanting programme has begun in the county.

Yorkshire Water has started planting 130,000 trees to replace woodland it owns that have been damaged by winter storms.

Over the past two years, damaged trees have been felled.

Some of the timber has been sold and some logs have been left to decay to provide habitat for wildlife.

Experts said conditions were now ideal for comprehensive replanting to begin.

Yorkshire Water is working with contractors and volunteers from wildlife and environmental groups to introduce a variety of trees.

Yorkshire Water's catchment and recreation manager, Geoff Lomas, said: "The woodland damaged by winter gales was largely conifer planted back in the 1960s.

"It was planted to help protect the land and as a revenue-earner with money raised from the sale of timber, but, today, Yorkshire Water is more about sustainable forestry than cash crops.

"Some of the new trees we plant will still be conifers, but we want to create more diversity, so ash, oak, hazel, horse chestnut, rowan, holly, willow and blackthorn will also be included, to create regenerating native woodlands like the ones Robin Hood probably used to hide out in back in the Middle Ages.

"All trees do not suit all locations of course, so the surrounding environment will play a large part in our choice of species."

Sites where planting will take place include Thruscross, Blubberhouses and other locations in the Washburn Valley, between Harrogate and Skipton, as well as sites in West and South Yorkshire.

The planting is expected to take until March.

Work to protect saplings will then continue over the next five years and is expected to cost about £250,000.