One year ago I bought my wood. I read all the feedback from you all and having visited Coombewell on a "survival training" day got chance to meet other owners. I took the plunge and purchased my wood. My wood has given me and my family immense pleasure and the time we're all together at the woods is very special.
The original thread was wether to buy an SSSI wood and the implications involved. I can now say no one need fear the classification and the word "SPECIAL" in SSSI is the one I focus on. I love to think in some small way I am protecting some rare bryophytes, (albeit I don't know where they are or what i'm looking for!), and that the little work I have done so far is benefitting the wood. A very special point for me was one I really hadn't thought about originally and that is the other folk with there woods around me. I have made some great friends and we all assist each other in different ways making the hard toil fun and for someone with no knowledge in woodland matters their wealth of info invaluable. Our woods I would say is almost becoming a community and as I hear some of you groan this is not negative. I can stay in my woods if I wish and speak to no one but prefer the odd visit from a fellow woodlander and a beer round the campfire. The benefit to the woods in general is we're all singing of the same songsheet so the work we are doing is the common good and not the barbed wire border mentality. This community approach I beleive will become a lot more relevent in years to come and particularly if the goverment ever sell of the forests.
I do appear to have bleeted on a while but in conclusion, quite simply, me and my family reckon it's the best thing I've ever done!
