Scottish Hutting Campaign

[SteveA]

im kind of for people getting back to their roots

it would be nice if people once again took what they needed from the world rather than what they wanted or would make them money but i think we are too far past those times!

[The Sawyer]

Hi Solar Wood I believe happybonzo may be refering to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caterpillar_D6

[The Sawyer]

the one thing that conserns me about this is that in scandinavia they have half the population in 4 times the land area and are brought up to understand the contryside and its rights. As a woodland manager with public access over some of my sites I spend a lot of time repairing the damage caused by people who don't understand the countryside and think of it as a place to dump rubbish and walk dogs.

I wait with interest others views.

regards kester

[Stephen1]

Hi Kester

I agree with your points wholeheartedly. The population density of Scandinavia and the much higher level of actual understanding of the the countryside compared with here creates and entirey different situation. The prospect of every 5 acres of woodland containing a 'leisure hut' for wonderfully well intentioned folk to use as a base to literally love their wood to death is a serious threat to lowland ancient woodland sites in the U.K.. There is great affection for the countryside in the UK but little understanding of it. A common theme is a misperception of how dynamique woodland is, how rapidly things change within natural woodland - particularly with regard to valuable, but unloved species, such as brambles, to the dramatic extreme of wishing to replace stands of wild garlic with bluebells - as I said literally loving that woodland to death. Not to mention problems of soil compaction, and a misperception of timescales between a damaging activity and its effect - typically giving rise to the complacent self-confident belief of ' I've been doing that for years and it hasn't caused any problems!'

Any criticism is usually jumped on - how dare you - this is my wood and I'll do what I want is the actual attitude, whilst all the while claiming the serene wisdom that they only see themselves as the woods guardians not its owners.

Sorry - Rant over! This morning I went out to what was once a very special corner of a local wood at the request of the owners, only to find everything that made that wood special destroyed. This lovely well intentioned family had worked really hard over the three years since they bought it, spent a lot of money and loved the wood to death. They havd turned it into a text book example of NVC W11 upland oak wooland. Some muppet does a biodiversity survey, tells the new owners the NVC type it is, and then somehow this gets translated into this wood SHOULD fit this textbook pattern of W11, and everything that's not meant to be there gets ripped out as a well meaning group of folk try and force the wood they love in to being what they've been told it should be.

Not to mention the impact of their 'shed' and the compaction of the soil in the wetland areas (even these base rich areas within the wood being forced into a pattern of vegetation to fit NVC W11) by their well meaning army of volunteers. The change to the soil structure and particularly the impact this will have on the fungal communities won't be seen for many years - but the damage is done.

You can't get cross with these people - I've never met more dedicated and earnest folk they do truly love their bit of land, but it's like some dopey fool whose bought a sheep in the belief they're saving it and they love it so much that they keep it in a warm draught free room and only feed it the most expensive steak, 'cos grass is really so horrid.

To be frank I thing the tradgedy is that the only qualification or quality needed to become the 'guardian' of a few acres of ancient woodland is the money to buy it...

[wrekin]

Their "hyttes" are part of the process of bringing city-dwelling Scandanavians up to understand the countryside. If more people were brought up with that kind of family involvement with woodlands and other rural environments, people wouldn't be making the kinds of mistakes that the family in Stephen1's example did. That kind of involvement only comes from ownership (or long leases or whatever that are equivalent in practical terms.)

Furthermore, a lot of the worries about irreversible damage could be removed by having different planning regimes for ancient woods and for plantations.

[wrekin]

More about hutting, now from the Woodlands.co.uk blog: http://www.woodlands.co.uk/blog/woodlan ... or-change/

[dredger99]

Sorry im a bit late in on this thread.

I dont think that since this has passed we are going to see a mass exodus of the population.
The majority of the people i speak to about this look at me wide eyed like,, sorry whats hutting.

I for one think this is a good idea.

Dredger