FOR over 60 years I have frequented an area known locally as 'The Straights' and Blackpool Brook located on the B4431 north of Blakeney.

Recently it was with total disbelief, amazement and anger I found all the roadside verges completely 'ploughed up' and devastated by the problematic boar.

This devastation extended all along this route – unfortunately a situation which is being repeated throughout the Forest. No longer will there be any roadside walking, or grazing for the Forest sheep with any open grassland open to destruction by the unstoppable and relentless mooting by the boar.

When I was a boy my family, like many others, kept pigs but they were only allowed out on open land provided they had been nose-ringed in order to prevent destructive mooting.

How sad it is to see our beautiful Forest road network and open spaces totally spoilt by ploughed-up mounds never to be the same again. Who knows what impact and adverse effect this will have on the tourist trade?

Whoever introduced the boar into the Forest has certainly left us with a legacy that we could well do without.

– R.N. James, Lydney.