With our native tree population under so much pressure, the authors suggest that we need to rethink our prejudices about non-native trees and their value in the wider countryside.
Once a species has the label ‘non-native’ placed upon it, it is effectively consigned to a category of ‘unwanted’ in conservation policy and practise. Yet there are species such as the Roman Snail Helix pomatia that are known to have been introduced and are also considered to be of conservation importance.