Alice Holt Community Forum*
Report of the First Meeting (October 2007)
* The ALICE HOLT COMMUNITY FORUM is an informal group of interested parties who meet periodically with Forest Enterprise to discuss issues of interest to the public. It includes the Editor of this website, members of the Alice Holt Action Group, representatives of Bentley , Dockenfield and Binsted Parish Council and local landowners or memebers of the public. Anyone interested in attending these meetings can contact David Williamson, who chairs the Forum at david.williamson@forestry.gsi.gov.uk
A Bright Future for our ForestForest Enterprise, in a welcome drive to improve public understanding held a meeting back in October 2007 with local representatives to outline their vision of how the management of Alice Holt Forest will evolve over the coming years. Here's how The Herald reprted that first meeting:-
This was the first meeting of what has subsequently become the "Alice Holt Community Forum*" . Follow up meetings are happening regularly now. Here's our report from the first meeting at which Forest Enterprise laid out their vision for the Future Management of Alice Holt
The Forest is now entering a period of quite extensive thinning and clear-felling. FE acknowledged that the arrival of machinary, the grading of forest tracks etc can alarm some forest users.Whilst understandably nervous of committing their already overstretched staff to endless rounds of public consultation & communication (They have no offical "PR" budget!), Mr Williamson did take the point that more public notice and better on-site explanatory materials would dispell many of the worries people feel when they see felling work starting. Hopefully they will make use of the willingness of parish magazines, newsletters, Parish Meetings and of course this website to give better pre-information about major forestry operations and to explain the background and context of the work they do.
With major felling & thinning going on in the Lodge & Holt Pound Enclosures, more informative notices explaining the reasons for management work would be welcome
There was plenty of good news at the meeting.
Good news #1 Mr Williamson accepted that the application for the Seasonal Campsite in the Lodge Enclosure had been something of a public relations disaster, that the application itself was flawed and that, in retrospect the scheme was an inappropriate usage of that part of the Forest. He was emphatic that the campsite scheme is now dead and buried and will NOT be revived.
Good News #2 FE's South East region, which is unique in the Forestry Commission in having a large proportion of its estate made up by Ancient Woodland sites (Rather than huge conifer plantations as in much of the North and West) has been in the vanguard of policy in working towards the gradual conversion of conifers to native broadleaved species. Today Alice Holt is approximately 50% broadleaves, 50% conifers. As the conifer crops mature, the majority will be felled and converted to native deciduous woodland, such that by 2050 the Forest will be around 80% broadleaf, and only 20% conifers.
Good News #3 FE's preferred method of converting to broadleaves is NOT to plant regimented lines of young oaks. Whilst there will be some planting, conversion will mainly happen by allowing natural regeneration to take its course, aided by leaving such broadleaved specimens as exist among todays Corsican Pines, European Larches and Western Red Cedars. There will be some natural regrowth of conifers from seed , but one only has to look at existing clearfelled sites to see how quickly our native "pioneer" species such as birch, willow, hazel, ash and rowan can take over a former conifer plantation. Due consideration will be given to maintaining champion and other specimen conifers which are valuable as much from an aesthetic viewpoint as for economic or conservation reasons
LEFT: Monolithic blocks of Corsican Pine are now being clear felled in Holt Pound Enclosure. It looks drastic in the short term. But natural regrowth RIGHT in the Lodge Enclosure has quickly created a varied and valuable wildlife habitat
Good News #4 It's true there's concern that ever-rising population in the South East, plus Government pressure on FE to hit policy targets for recreation provision will mean vistor numbers will go steadily upwards. However FE recognises that Alice Holt cannot and should not drift inexorably from "Forest to Theme Park". Further leisure-related facilities such as toilets, car parking, etc will be kept within the footprint of the existing Dockenfield Visitor Centre. The emphasis will be on upgrading and re-arranging the existing facilities to make most efficient use of the space on the site. No further developments of the scale of "Go Ape" are planned and FE wants to encourage a more even spread of visitors accross the seasons and days of the week, managing the peaks and troughs more effectively for example by charging different parking fees at weekends. Elsewhere in the Forest there are no plans for new toilets, car parks etc although FE may attempt to upgrade some of the trails ,encouraging visitors to venture further into the heart of the Forest from the main Dockenfield access point. FE acknowledges that Alice Holt ultimately has limits on what contribution it can make to the provision of countryside access and Mr Williamson's team hopes to work with its DEFRA masters to ensure that recreational planning is done in an integrated way accross the whole Forrestry Commission estate and hopefully also in conjunction with other bodies who control large tracts of green space, such as the Army.
Good News #5 FE is looking seriously at restoration of the Old Arboretum. Whilst there are some paradoxical questions to sort out (such as how removing native scrub to encourage exotic specimen trees squares with the Ancient Woodland character of the site) FE's colleagues from the Research arm of the Commission are planning a detailed inventory of the Arboretum's trees with a view to creating an new management plan for this valuable, but neglected resource.
Good News #6 A new Forest Design Statement is planned. This is the document which "captures" these policies and illustrates how they will be put into practice on the ground year by year, section by section. It will be around two years before the new plans are ready but it's a very open and transparent process; there will be full consultation with both stakeholders and the public at large. In the meantime the existing plans have been slightly modified in order to allow the accelerated conversion from conifers to broadleaves desibed in #2 above.Also the new Design Statemnt will not just take Alice Holt in isolation, but will be planned in a more integrated way, taking Alice Holt as part of a "landscape" level region, in conjunction with other woodlands in neigbouring areas of the Western Weald.
Good News#7 In the past the Forestry Commission (which is of course answerable to the Treasury) was under permanent pressure to maximise the economic return of its timber growing operations above all other considerations. Incredibly, factors such as conservation were allowed to "interfere" with maximising forestry output only to the tune of perhaps allowing a shortfall of 5% compared to the maximum expected return on investment. Now the logic has been reversed. FE decides how its properties should be best managed, balancing site-by site its four main objectives of conserving the environment, promoting the "people benefits" of forests via recreation, education etc, making an economic return and securing a sustainable future for forests. Only having decided how best to manage a forest to acheive the best balance of these four objectives, does FE then make hard commitments about the amount of timber it intends to produce from that Forest. It has to stick to these commitments in order to provide a degree of planned security for the sawmills, paper industry etc which all rely on predictable wood supplies. But the cart is no longer before the horse. Timber output is set to suit the best interests of the Forest. The management of the Forest no longer revolves around hitting maximum timber output targets.
Timber output quotas are now set at levels that are right for the Forest
So overall there are lots of positive trends coming from the Forest authorities nationally and specifically here in Alice Holt. Any downsides or words of warning?
On the whole not. Of course one as to remember that many of these fundamental policy shifts from the bad old days of "Maximum conifer productionn at any cost" are relatively recent, and doubtless not everyone in the FC is a deeply commited to this conversion as the team at Alice Holt. Plus governments and policies change a lot faster than trees grow, so there can never be a guarantee that U-turns won't happen.We only need to see what's happening in agriculture, where the benefits of years of "set aside" policy which has taken some of the pressure off our endangered farmland wildlife now risks being thrown away overnight due to short term rises in food prices. We need to remain vigilant and express our views when we don't like the way things are going.
Two possible concerns seem to me to exist....
Risk#1 By FE's own admission the process of natural regeneration from clear-feeled conifers to natural broadleaves will create a lot of economically marginal woodland. Whereas the Forestry Commission has a wealth of expertise in managing and utilising intensive conifer plantations, it has precious little experience of how best to work with a tangled scrub of birch and willow. Hopefully the demands of the emerging bio-fuel sector will provide an economic underpinning for this policy and the existing stocks of growing oak at Alice Holt will keep the books balanced for a good while yet. But if the finances don't add up in the eyes of shortsighted treasury officials, it could re-introduce pressure for more revenue, whether from old-style intensive timber growing of from even worse alternatives such as major land divestments or housing and leisure development.
Ten year old dense regrowth of native species (Birch, willow,ash and hazel) on a site clearfelled of conifers. Great for wildlife but will it pay the bills for Forest Enterprise in the future?
Risk#2 The other risk lies in the way in which FE interprets and balances the often contradictory policy imperatives of conservation of the environment and landscape versus catering to ever-increasing demands for leisure usage. If Governements want to interpret encouraging use of our open spaces purely in terms of "more bums on seats" then there will clearly be further damage to the character, quality and sense of place in this Ancient Royal Forest. One can only hope that enlightenment prevails and FE is not expected to simply pack more and more car-based visitors into what could become an ever more bland and dreary "Country Park" experience. The key seems to be in managing Alice Holt not in isolation, but as one, unique and valuable place in the context of many other green spaces which are (or could be made) publically accessible. FE needs to work with local authorities, the Army, private landowners, conservation bodies and the future South Downs National Park authorities and not take an unfair share of the pressure to provide mass recreation in this part of the crowded South East. In order to preserve a valuable experience for people (as well as wildlife) often "less is more".
