FORESTRY workers have proved it is never too early to start thinking about Christmas as they embark on a mammoth task.
Staff working in the North York Moors forestry district have been hard at work replanting trees and restoring felled areas, as well as restocking Christmas trees for future festive celebrations.
As part of the back-breaking work they must plant up to 500,000 individual saplings by hand.
Richard Darn, from the Forestry Commission, said everyone was working against the clock.
"Work has got to be done by April, so it's a race against time," he said.
"Once the weather gets warmed up the trees get stressed by everything that's happening, and they are harder to move and plant out without damaging them."
About 10,000 Christmas trees will be replaced as staff think ahead - they are destined to be used at Christmas 2009.
More than 100,000 broad-leaved trees are also en route from a nursery at Wykeham, outside Scarborough, to Dalby and Cropton forests.
Updated: 10:56 Thursday, January 09, 2003
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