Goverment Public Consultation on Sale of Woodland

[Safety]

As British Orienteering is a major interested party in the Sale of British Woodland as announced by the government, Our organisational body, (as with the Mountain Bike Orienteering Body) are Listed as Consultees in the proposal. However how much information they are liekly to pass on to the people who map, plan and organise events on this land is yet to be seen. As the Consultaion Period opens today I though I would post the link to the Documentation available.

http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/forests/index.htm

As it is a PUBLIC consultation, look through the proposal and respond as you see fit. How to do this is outlined in the documents. The way the land is divided up by will set a precedence for the future, and will undoubtably affect how easy/difficult it is to put on events in the future. Even if your club does not have a large area of forest (Sherwood / Delemere / Grizedale), those small little blocks in the middle of a field that you use for training, may just be sold off to the highest bidder who can remove public access, stopping you train.

[seabird]

those small little blocks in the middle of a field that you use for training, may just be sold off to the highest bidder who can remove public access, stopping you train.

Precisely what happened some years back when the FC sold off the one, very delightful block of woodland in my club's patch.

[Big Jon]

I'm sure the public consultation is merely a sham. The decision has been taken and the only difference will be tinkering round the edges. Protest to your MP - loudly and repeatedly, but don't hold your breath. The current government are a bunch of fanatical ideologues determined to break every possible aspect of "public life" in Britain in order to fulfil their right wing fantasies and pay back their rich backers.

[Becks]

Precisely what happened some years back when the FC sold off the one, very delightful block of woodland in my club's patch.

That's not the one near us back home is it? I'm even more unhappy if that used to be FC!

[seabird]

That's not the one near us back home is it? I'm even more unhappy if that used to be FC!

It is. The block overlooking the Aire Valley.

[Becks]

I didn't know that. That's a real shame. Would have been a really brilliant Middle area. Now you get shouted at if a nasty man with a dog catches you anywhere but on the main pain.

[Clive Coles]

Yes ~ we need a mass lobby of our MP's to let them know how we feel. If you haven't written to your MP yet please do.

I was listening to one of our Suffolk MP on local radio this morning ( Mathew Hancock CON)~ his constituency contains both Thetford and Kings Forest ~ he is pro the sell off as is the MP for the constituency which contains Rendlesham, Tunstall and Dunwich Forests. We have to challenge their opinions where ever we have the opportunity.

One of his claims was that private landlords could manage the woodlands more effectively and profitably than the Forestry Commission. Instead of growing timber to provide poles and posts, wood fuel pellets and pulp we should manage the forest so that the wood can be used for furniture !

In East Anglia much of our forest was hit by Michael Fish's hurricane. After clearance the area was largely replanted with Corsican Pine ~ a fast growing cash crop which yields poor quality timber that is ideal for providing poles and posts, wood fuel pellets and pulp. Sorry we have planted the wrong trees if we wish to manufacture Dining Room tables ! It could take another 80 years to grow a tree to produce the type and grade of timber you need for such products.

We seem to have MP's who know little about Forestry ~ instead they have friends in the corporate boardrooms many of whom like to shoot anything that moves. (That's a sport by the way).

If the Government sell off our forests there is no going back. More and more fences will start appearing to enclose the parcels of land as they are sold off. Access will start to be restricted. Each landowner will then use his investment to enhance his profit. There is little profit in timber nowadays ~ there is more to be made from hunting and shooting. Our Forests will go the way of French Commune Forests ~ off limits during the shooting season.

[ryeland of doom]

While OT - orienteering relies on landowner permission, this is the time to start the fight back against the medieval practice of "closing" woodlands. Time to get even with the "nasty man".

Get to know where your local FC woods are and keep visiting - if they are sold, and the gomls take over - keep visiting.

This worked in at least one case, the last time we had a cut happy kleptocracy in the 1980s.

[DaveK]

From the song 'Big Yellow Taxi' (Counting Crows/Joni Mitchell) -

'They took all the trees, and put em in a tree museum
And they charged the people a dollar and a half to see them
No, no, no
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone
They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot'

[Red Adder]

I gather even the Torygraph thinks its a bad idea (But the Grauniad says its a good idea if proper covenants to guarentee access are in place, though this is the same paper that thought voting Lib Dem would stop all those nasty Conservative and Labour people). Truth is there is no mandate for this proposal but when has that ever stopped a government of any hue in this so-called democracy.

The economic argument for the forests being worth £ 470 m only stacks up (sorry) as there are massive tax breaks available (to the rich) if you invest in forests. The timber itself is currently of low value. After they have been taken by the new owner's what's the betting the net value to the Treasury of the sale is approximately Nil. The amenity value of the forest though is huge - and the costs are only 30p per head per annum - a damn site cheaper than your average gym.

Then again are is the FC always that great. They impose restrictions depending which conservationist-Ultra has bent their ear or the whim of the local senior officre. This Saturday's Thetford Thrash goes ahead under the caveat if anyone is caught running on one of the mountain bike tracks the whole event could be terminated with immediate effect. Some of their parking charges (for everyone - not just us) are almost as disgraceful as parking at hospitals (and are going up significantly each year). Look at the attempt to impose a £ 3 access charge on us just before Christmas.

And carrying on from Clive's comment about EA forest recovery post 1987 hurricane. At the time there were all sorts of statements about replanting with far large percentages of native trees - at least as non-llinear belts around conifer blocks. In fact they just replanted exactly the same block patterns as before -you could still use the Geoff Arbor's excellent 1972 map of Tunstall. All the main rides are identical and you even find the extraction lanes aren't badly "mapped".

[Red Adder]

Its not just FC land in danger. Many cash strapped councils are also thinking of disposing of their land - and I bet with less chance of imposing access covenants. SuffOC's "best area" (see Compass Sport listing) Knettishall Heath is under threat.

Interestingly at our recent event there we had nearly 300 runners - about twice our normal Cat C turnout, including some from a long way from EA - did we detect some "Munro baggers" - if so I hope you felt the trip was worth it.

[Scott]

But the Grauniad says its a good idea if proper covenants to guarentee access are in place

The thing that is going to make campaigning against this difficult is that proper covenants are already in place, at least sufficiently so to satisfy the vast majority of the population: the Forestry Commission has dedicated about 70% of its forest (and about 90% of the forest that it actually owns) in England as access land under CRoW, and most FC forests have a pretty good network of designated bridleways for cyclists and riders. Both of those "access guarantees" will remain regardless of any sell-off.

[PG]

Woodland Trust have started a petition focussed on ancient woodlands.

http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/protect

I suspect that most of our best areas would fit into that category, so please sign. The more evidence that people care the better.

[bilbo]

Silver lining?..... Lakes FC forests (Grizedale, Claife, Simpson Ground, Claife) have been so badly managed for orienteering and conservation that a sell-off would most likely improve things. Away from the popular car parks these forests are now largely clear-felled, deer-fenced and replanted with the same old Sitka Spruce (the spiky stuff that blows down!). The FC in the South Lakes are not always obliging with orienteering access either, recently refusing access to an established o-area (Scale Green) on the grounds of conservation, having just bulldozed a bike track through it. Private landowners, contrary to fears, tend to be much more amenable towards orienteering and look after their forests properly (eg Graythwaite Estate). Charities such as the National Trust (who could quite possibly take over Grizedale) and the Woodland Trust also tend to be more amenable to orienteering access and plant nicer types of tree for us to run through. So the sell-off could be a big opportunity. BOF needs to leap into action and back the right kind of buyer - the National Trust in the case of the South Lakes.

[DIDSCO]

Out of interest what sort of prices are we talking about - lowest to the highest?

My wifes parents are major forest owners in the area of Sweden where we live (Göteborg). This year the price of forest has risen by 12%, with a total increase of 72% over the last 10 year period. The average price for forests in southern Sweden is around £50 per cubic metre. The investment sector in Sweden are pretty certain that forestry is a safe bet, with a strong belief that forests will be playing a major role in the bio-fuel sector in 10-15 years - is this the same assumption in the UK?