Remember all those public forests that were going to be up for sale two years ago? They’re not:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21275432

‘Measurably increasing the quantity and quality of access to public and privately owned woodlands’

😀 😀 😀

Good news 🙂

Great news. The Goverment has absolutely no right to sell OUR forests… i have however noticed there is far more felling going on. One of my local haunts has masive areas of forest that has been flattened.

I never understood what all the fuss was about – the majority of forestry under the remit of the FC is privately owned anyway. Was selling 15% of the remainder going to make that much difference?

The Goverment has absolutely no right to sell OUR forests

…er, yes they do. The government are the elected representatives of the people. i.e. you and me. Assuming you use your vote of course…

…er, yes they do. The government are the elected representatives of the people. i.e. you and me.

Doesn’t really matter now 😀
The people have spoken, and they say “JOG ON”

😀 excellent news 😀

andypaul99 – Member
i have however noticed there is far more felling going on.

That’s most likely down to disease in Larch and, latterly, Ash & Sweet Chestnut.

…er, yes they do. The government are the elected representatives of the people.

And straight after voting day the manifesto goes in the bin and they make decisions on the hop for the next 5 years, such as this which they have now u-turned on, along with about half a dozen other ill thought out ‘plans’ for the future.

I never really see ownership as the problem, people will still use them anyway creating ‘non official” paths and trails. Cheekys still cheeky.

There was a lady on r4 this morning talking about making forestry a more profitable business in order to save the ancient woodlands. I guess we might see more logging and replanting?

Timber prices are up, that’s why more trees are coming down. Ironically since the plans to sell were first anounced forestry income has gone up. WIth more power stations moving to bio mass the wood crop will be worth even more, all the brash currently left littering the site will now have a value as well.

Just spent some time speed reading the released Policy on Woodlands & Forestry. Thought I’d drop this bit in for info:

Access and Recreation
We want as many people as possible to be able to access green space, including woodlands, for exercise, leisure and recreational purposes and, in particular, we are keen to see greater multi-use access to woodland in and around our towns and cities. We will work with others to explore opportunities for increasing access. We believe that this is best done at the local level, for example through the further development of Rights of Way Improvement Plans.
We will continue to use the Woodland Trust’s Woodland Access Standard to measure progress. A new baseline will be available in early 2013 which will assist more effective targeting of access improvement initiatives in the future.

I never really see ownership as the problem, people will still use them anyway creating ‘non official” paths and trails. Cheekys still cheeky.

There are a lot of issues with mountain biking on privately owned land which the FC either don’t have to worry about, or have figured ways round. I know the sell-off would have been disastrous for us here in Bristol.

Amaury Pierron Hits Maximum Warp in ‘B.C. Virgin’.

…er, yes they do. The government are the elected representatives of the people. i.e. you and me. Assuming you use your vote of course…

Yes we vote for the party based upon its manifesto / what they say they they stand for….at NO point did the Conservatives and Lib Dems say they were going to sell of the forests for goodness sake?

Its sounds like you are sticking up for them johnellison?

. Ironically since the plans to sell were first anounced forestry income has gone up. WIth more power stations moving to bio mass the wood crop will be worth even more, all the brash currently left littering the site will now have a value as well.

Not that ironic I suspect the Tories knew this all along and were attempting to sell the forests to their friends prior to the increase on timber costs.

Pff…. this is just shifting so called ‘public ownership’ from one unaccountable monopoly to another.

Andy Wightman’s views on this make a lot of sense to me. More here:

http://www.andywightman.com/

i have however noticed there is far more felling going on. One of my local haunts has masive areas of forest that has been flattened.

Must be ready to harvest, that’s how it works once the trees get to certain age in they come and chop them down. I know it’s a funny thing to do to a forest planted for wood.

A tiny bit more than 15% of FC-run forests are actually owned by the FC now: after all the hoo-hah about selling Great Wood in the Quantocks last year (it was all about hunting BTW) the Forestry Commission ended up buying it. 😀 😀 😀