It was distressing to read in The Times last week of the Woodland Trust’s belief that more than 500 of Britain’s ancient woods are under threat of development, double the number in peril three years ago.

Readers can no doubt guess one major reason for the changed situation. You have it: the absurd vanity project that is HS2, which will destroy at least 41 ancient woods and damage a further 42 on or near the construction boundary.

Housing developments are another powerful enemy of nature. One for 300 homes in Chandler’s Ford, Hampshire, for instance, threatens more than 20 acres of woods.

The report brought a powerful response from the admirable chef Antonio Carluccio, well-known as a woodland mushroom-hunter. He wrote to The Times: “One of the reasons I have chosen to live in Britain for 40 years is because nature is – or was – respected. Is it really necessary to transform all that is beautiful and useful for the majority into business and greed for the few? It is not the future annihilation of mushroom ground alone that saddens me but the irreversible destruction of an ancient and natural habitat – the lung for life.”

The matter was well put by WH Auden in his fine poem Woods. It begins with mention of “those primal woods Piero di Cosimo so loved to draw”, probably a reference to the artist’s Forest Fire in the Ashmolean Museum.

The poem ends: “The trees encountered on a country stroll/Reveal a lot about a country’s soul./A small grove massacred to the last ash,/An oak with heart-rot, give away the show:/This great society is going to smash;/They cannot fool us with how fast they go,/How much they cost each other and the gods./A culture is no better than its woods.”