We need the Government to accept the huge contribution that trees make to many areas of our lives.

Woods and forests improve the landscape, increase biodiversity, help water and carbon management and more. The Government must also accept that growing trees is an industry and needs to make money.

Our new report spells out the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) vision for forestry and woodlands for 2050, starkly warning: "If woodland management does not become profitable, it will die."

In this report the CLA lays out its vision of what the forests and woodlands of England and Wales should be like in 40 years.

It is a vision of trees valued by all, mitigating climate change, producing biomass for fuel, and, where pragmatic, usurping concrete, brick and steel as building materials. It is also a vision of forest managers as carbon traders, and of greater public and private investment going into the planting of trees, and of timber production delivering eco-system services.

How could this ideal become a reality? For a start, Government needs to value the contribution forestry and woodland make to the landscape, biodiversity, and water and carbon management.

It should understand the role that trees could play in mitigating climate change. Government must learn that tree planting and effective woodland management are legitimate ways of carbon- offsetting, and that growing trees is an industry and as such needs to be financially viable. The CLA will work vigorously in partnership with other woodland bodies to persuade the Government to help landowners to deliver this bold vision for the forestry and woodlands of England and Wales.

What is certain is that if woodland management does not become profitable, it will not last. There is already a decline in skilled staff in forestry and a lack of job opportunities.

And if woodland is under-managed, it can make no financial return to its owners, conservation work cannot take place, and climate change mitigation will be held back.

Government needs to grasp and reverse this spiral of decline. Woodland could offer a wonderful range of environmental services if only a market could be developed to make this financially viable for owners.

The wood fuel market for heat should also be encouraged by providing incentives for the installation of boilers and support for the wood fuel supply chain.

For the CLA's vision to come true, the regulations governing forestry and woodland management must be reviewed.

Presently they are geared up to curbing excessive cutting and deforestation. Yet the greatest threat to woodland and its biodiversity is a lack of thinning and management.

Finally, Government needs to recognise the important role that country pursuits, such as shooting, play in the financial success of woodland and the overall conservation of wildlife.

It must accept that the size of populations of species such as the grey squirrel and deer should be managed for the good of woodland and wildlife alike.

The rampant grey squirrels, which have driven out most of the smaller, more timid native reds in much of the country, are also destroying broad-leaf woods by destroying bark at the base and in the crown of maturing trees making it much harder to grow good timber.

Deer too, though an integral and valued part of the British countryside, roam in such high numbers in some areas that regeneration of woodland could be ensured only by the erection of a six foot high metal fence.

Both grey squirrels and deer are so prevalent, says the CLA, that woodland and ground-nesting birds as well as dormice are under threat from loss of habitat.

The CLA isn't suggesting "an Armageddon with guys blowing squirrels out of the trees" but believes that numbers of both deer and squirrel populations have to be controlled.

The Government has put too much emphasis to date on protecting areas around the current red squirrel havens such as Northern England and the Isle of Wight.

More aggressive action to exterminate greys, which were introduced from the US in the late 19th century, has worked in areas such as Anglesey, Wales and Northumberland.

In Scotland, where the CLA does not operate, the Scottish Executive has sanctioned killing zones in an effort to help red squirrels retain their Highland homes. In the UK as a whole there are thought to be only about 160,000 red squirrels left with perhaps as many as 3.3 million greys.

The CLA will work vigorously in partnership with other woodland bodies to persuade Government to help landowners to deliver this bold vision for the forestry and woodlands of England and Wales.

The CLA advises on aspects of forestry and woodland management including grants, regulation, marketing and utilisation, timber transport, non-timber forest products, wood fuel, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, plant health, deer and the squirrel population.