There are not necessarily the local flora that should be taking hold. If you kill all of the trees in an area, you re going to have to wait an awful long time b

There are not necessarily the local flora that should be taking hold. If you kill all of the trees in an area, you re going to have to wait an awful long time before they re-grow there, even though it will work, and can be support (and I would argue should be). Additionally the land may still have a purpose, such as for flood defense down stream, in which case engineering the habitat should absolutely take place. Frankly the lack of trees in some areas of the UK (even rural areas, such as large parts of the Yorkshire dales/moors where I am from) would mean that forest regeneration would take far longer (100's of years longer, as we would have to wait multiple times for trees to mature before spreading seeds in the local area. Another thing to take into account is the local wildlife. Due to having a very unhealthy amount of predators tree growth is hampered by large numbers of deer, rabbits and in many areas sheep, which roam in un-enclosed fashion. Mature trees do very well, but saplings just get grazed to oblivion. So yes, please plant trees on this scale, but they do need to take their time, and do it right.