31st March 2011

If you go down to the woods today get ready for a big surprise.

There may be For Sale notices being nailed to the trees just when you thought the woodland was safe.

It seems that the claims of the Chancellor about his 'Robin Hood' budget were a mistake because the woods are back on the market.

A case of 'No Wood, No Robin Hood'?

Living as we do in a fairly rural part of the North West we have a number of accessible woodlands close by where we live and we are regular visitors and enjoy the streams, the sight of deer and otters and the peace and quiet and in one woodland where the fishing rights are owned by an angling association of which I am a member I can fish for Brown Trout in the singing water.

One of the woods we visit is a private estate, the new owners recently created some local controversy by engaging in a wide ranging remodelling of the estate, some culling, coppicing, felling and earthworks. At the same time a number of signs were erected acknowledging the public footpath and the right of way but reminding people that they were on private land.

The hoo hah seems to have died down and all is quiet in those woods.

On the other side of the stream which divides the public woodland from the private there has been no maintenance undertaken, fallen trees are left lying, often across the paths making the wood less accessible. Of course it all comes down to money and there is little money for the parish council to invest when there are other demands on its limited budget.

Nearby another woodland, the remains of an ancient Beech Forest, is owned by the Woodland Trust. Here walkers can see the benefits of the Trusts public ownership of the woodland.

Here maintenance is routinely undertaken, but the woodland is left in a fairly natural state. There is gravelled path that allows for wheelchair access, a lovely picnic area next to the open water, where dragonflies can be seen in the summer and even a Barbecue are for a family picnic or a Teddy Bear picnic in the woods.

The woodland is pleasant to walk through at any time of year, and the seasons are beautifully differentiated because of the mix of deciduous and evergreen trees, spring sunshine or winter sun glinting on snow the woodland is a huge public resource which can be enjoyed for dog walking, quiet strolls, bird watching or for the children an dfor chancellors playing at Robin Hood.

It is possible to catch an occasional glimpse of deer and the silence is only occasionally broken by the sound of a woodpecker rattling his beak against the trunk of a hundred year old beech tree.

This ownership model seems to offer the best of both worlds, with woodland and the public benefit ting from both access and investment.

So it was a surprise to read in today's paper that woodlands are back on the agenda.

Even before the independent forestry panel, under the Chairmanship if the Bishop of Liverpool, has met Caroline Spelman MP the Environment Secretary, has been charged with raising a £100 Million by selling 15% of the woodland.

Reading the piece in the paper it does look as though the first priority is the £100M, after all the sale of the woods has little or no merit other than ensuring that money is raised.

But I guess things are more complicated. I know next to nothing about forestry management, I just like walking in Woodland and looking out for Red Squirrels. I am not at all sure what the politics of woodlands are, (probably more to do with the politics of the Badgers and those pesky squirrels?)I just hope that the Bishop of Liverpool can see the wood for the trees when his commission starts work.

But I imagine that part of the political emphasis is to see the Forestry Commission's joint role as owner and regulator, separated. Alongside this to find a way of blaming the Labour Party for overspending on forests and then make sure that what are called community and heritage woodlands are seen to be kept accessible whoever owns them or however they were acquired and then to slowly and silently dispose of the commercial forests.

There are plenty of woodlands for sale right now so one solution is go out and buy one, another solution is to join the campaign to save the woodlands we currently enjoy visiting but whatever we do look out for the bears because today is the day they're having their picnic ..............