Save our Forests

On the morning of the 3rd of January thousands of local people protested against the sale of the Forest of Dean. Lawrence, our intrepid roving reporter, was there. This is his report.

It was a bright, crisp, sunny morning. The huge crowd of supporters of HOOF (Hands Off Our Forest) gathered in a field by the Speech House in the middle of the Forest of Dean, most of us arriving by car and being expertly marshalled into neat, orderly rows. As people decanted themselves from their vehicles, a light dusting of snow fell, freezing the ground - quite a blessing as things could have got muddy. Serious numbers had turned up - and the atmosphere was that of a fair-sized firework display (minus the rockets and the "Guy") even down to an impressive bonfire with a facsimile of a familiar clock-tower atop it.

The group had been hurriedly, yet extremely effectively, formed to protest against the Public Bodies Bill, heading through Parliament, and championed by, amongst others, the Conservative MP for the Forest of Dean, Mark Harper. This Bill, were it to gain Royal Assent and pass into law, would allow the selling off of any and all of the public forests currently managed by the Forestry Commission.

The march itself was a pleasant but fairly perfunctory affair, skirting just a couple of sides of the field, through the edge of the woodland, and then we got down to the speeches. It was quite a star-studded affair, with Baroness Jan Royall of Blaisdon leading the charge. "We're standing in the middle of a glorious forest that belongs to us," she said. "We cannot and must not allow our Forest to be sold ... Normally the Government publishes a Green Paper and invites consultation before publishing a White Paper. In this case we have a Bill going through Parliament and then a White Paper. I think I'd call this arse over tit!" That drew a cheer. "Where was the green paper and where was the consultation? What this topsy-turvy situation means is that no matter what the White Paper may say, the Public Bodies Bill means the Forest of Dean along with all the other forests may be sold - it's there in black and white. I don't want to be part of a social or community enterprise owning the Forest, because you and I already own it. I want to thank the 49 employees of the Forestry Commission in Coleford and say we want them to keep their jobs." The crowd, of all possible social strata, were obviously immensely pleased that this formidable woman was on their side. She concluded: "Go for it, and campaign, and we will win". Applause rang out across the field.

In due course, the environmentalist and former chair of the Sustainable Development Commission, Jonathon Porritt, took the stage. "I feel honoured to be invited here to support the Forest and to ensure the Government's irresponsible, insane plans do not go ahead," he declare. "We know what the intention of this Government is; they've made it very clear. They would like to see as much of the public forests estate as possible sold off into private hands as fast as possible, with as speedy a receipt coming back to the Treasury as possible.
"Every time they talk about forestry they mention the civil society and Big Society in the same breath. We know that this idea of selling off little packets of land to voluntary and community groups makes no sense whatsoever. You can't just parcel [the Forest] off into little bits and expect that those in charge of managing those little bits will understand the value of the whole. It is extraordinary that we have a Government that still doesn't understand the basics of land management at that very fundamental level. We don't have any basis on which to trust anything we hear from this Government at the moment. This kind of rally and expression of public anger is a way of showing Mark Harper and his Government that they shall not move forward with this proposal." (A month later, there are indeed promising signs in Westminster that there is some back-pedalling going on, though whether that will end in victory for the campaigners is not yet entirely clear.)

There was a good deal of stirring music from a local brass band, as well as other musicians and singers (including Dick Brice, Bob Smith, Mike Edwards and Asha Faria-Vare) to keep us entertained; though, as the afternoon wore on (and once we had seen Parliament burned in effigy) many eventually capitulated and headed back to the warmth of home. But, leaving the trees, the thing that sprang to my mind were the words of the character Lowell in the 1972 Douglas Trumbull film Silent Running, as he contemplates the final destruction of the forests: "They're not replaceable!"

Lawrence McIlhoney