GLOBAL warming, globalisation, Brexit, biodiversity loss, heritage, heretic, rewilding, recreation, Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) or ‘anything goes’.

There are many things that influence us in our thinking about what the future of the Forest of Dean might be – and everything seems to be contradicted by something else on the list.

I am not a Forester – by about 150 miles – but this is my home, and I’m very fond of the place. I find some of the ideas of the Forest’s future rather dismaying.

The present surge of enthusiasm for AONB status is encouraging, but it doesn’t really address the question of what we want the Forest for.

I guess most people would have one – or more – of timber, recreation, and nature in their answers.

I remember a meeting a few years back, primarily about low-impact building, that skirted around this question.

The Forest was seen as an excellent place for growing timber for building, and one contributor expressed annoyance that it was seen by so many people as a preserve for walkers and riders, naturalists, picnickers and heritage enthusiasts.

Someone else was annoyed that wildlife – and even wilderness – was being encouraged at the expense of timber and small-wood productivity.

Other speakers were surprised that little local wood was used in building, and not a lot for fuel.

We remembered the Dean’s long history of iron and coal, and building stone.

Rather hesitantly, the Forest’s value as an absorber of carbon was mentioned. I don’t remember ‘biodiversity’ featuring in the discussions.

Between us we had the Dean down for harvesting, extraction, a living backdrop, education, and a sanctuary.

The only significant things missing were building new towns, and cutting down the Forest and growing field crops – an 18th century suggestion, I believe.

It seems obvious that there are several incompatibilities here. 

There are political and cultural issues, and of course economic ones. There are environmental questions, and aesthetic ones. And there are ethical ones.

We can’t have it all. Can we decide what to

do without?

Can we leave the decision to the council, or the government? To private owners and entrepreneurs?

Would there be a general agreement on this? It seems rather like Brexit.

An AONB looks a good idea, but there are fundamentals that ought to be sorted out first.

– Martin Spray, The Pludds.