People before animals

Yes. And while we have been getting the storms further south than usual, the USA has been getting a lot more snow and cold than usual because of the same shift in the circumpolar vortex. I love how weather is so (mathematically) chaotic and unpredictable because it illustrates how complex a thing our planet (any planet) is.

My comment follows anno's.

Exactly Posie and how many species of insects etc does one tree support? About 280 which provide food for birds!

It varies depending on the species of tree. Oak is best, I believe, closely followed by things like birch.

Note to self 'remember circumpolar vortex to slip into conversations'. Thanks Bags

Oh I thought I'd written 'oak tree' sorry!

and at your last two comments, aka.

I believe willow is very good too and that loves wet conditions.

Moles too Jings

If what grows well here, as in "loving wet conditions, is anything to go by, these species would do well: pedunculate oak, goat willow, ash, silver birch, sycamore, rowan, holly, bird cherry. Plus others but those dominate and seed like crazy, as do a number of shrubs like hazel.

As do brambles , and bracken, and rushes....

Yes, moles

Not for supporting insects of course, but being flooded out.

Let them create more wildlife ponds upstream, so that excess water is captured there and the rate of emptying into flood plains is slowed down. Plant more trees (see Bags list) strategically, dredge the ditches and rivers and (see Elegran's post somewhere) bring back the beavers.

Problem, if not solved, at least alleviated, and we're not bring paid megabucks, and given peerages, to sit on some committee.

More trees = more co2 absorbed and could start slowly to reverse the problem?? Or not (I am not a scientist). Surely they are not known as the lungs of the earth for no reason. We lose them at our peril

Here is a really interesting article that shows how complex the issues are ...

Really food for thought.

Drowning in Money

http://www.monbiot.com/2014/01/13/drowning-in-money/

Apologies, I stand corrected Anno- of course the Jet Stream, thanks.

You didn't blue it Granjura but I think this is the same theme
drowning in money

What a b****y c**k up

Just read the link.You just assume these so called experts know what they're doing. Turns out they don't!

JessM, sorry, it was Swansea, not Cardiff. It was in the Guardian Environment section two days ago, and it's not a modest one any more. 10% of renewable energy, they are saying.

My bottom garden is definitely soggy. I have a 12foot high bonsai oak, but that obviously isn't thirsty enough.

Shouldn't that be 12" if it's bonsai?

Thinking on (as one does) do (deciduous) trees use much water in the winter months? I'd have thought transpiration is much less when the leaves are gone?

No! It's twelve foot!
Dd grew it from an acorn and was dwarfing it! It got put in the garden one summer and got forgotten. It grew!
That was about 36 years ago!
We still call it the bonsai oak

It's done well not to have grown any higher! We had one which grew from an acorn in the garden, and had to have it cut down last year as it was becoming a problem where it was. It had grown to 15 ft in 12 years!

It's been pruned!