ROBIN Rawson (Skipping the issue, Readers' Letters, January 26) is mostly right about trees being a temporary store of carbon.

However, their leaves and fallen limbs, when rotted down, leave some of their carbon in the soil.

Soils are an important store of carbon, and deepen over time with regular additions of leaf mould and other composted organic matter.

Gardeners can add fertility and carbon to their soil by top dressing with well-rotted garden compost and leaf mould, and adopting a no-dig, permanent planting approach, which reduces oxidation and release of carbon dioxide.

Trees are also an excellent source of renewable energy in the form of wood and logs. People with highly-efficient wood stoves are able to replace fossil-fuel use by heating and cooking with wood.

Our house has two British-built, smoke-free wood stoves which consume five or six tonnes of logs a year.

Our combined gas and electricity bills are £250 per year, but I spend about eight hours a week collecting logs with my cycle trailer, and sawing, splitting and stacking so they are dry and useable.

I believe this balance is more ethical than relying heavily on fossil fuels, adding to climate change and having to work excessively hard to pay huge fuel bills.

I admit, though, that I am lucky to be self-employed, so I can balance paid work with activities which reduce my expenditure, like growing fruit and veg and managing wood-piles.

John Cossham, Garden House, Hull Road, York.