Perhaps it's me but.....

[greyman]

I know I will probably confirm that I am an old scrote with this post but I have read the latest stuff from the 'Nut hunt' and can not find any warnings or admonitions that anyone wanting to take part in this endeavour must check that "thier local woodland' is open to the public. I haven't found anyone traipsing around my wood just recently but you would have thought that a responsible group would at least have mentioned that an awful lot of woodland is privately owned and does not have open access to the public. I wonder if it was considered that people going into woods and digging about for nuts wasn't really that good an idea from an ecological point of view - I will take a dim view if I catch anyone scratching about. We're just getting to the stage where this springs new growth will be coming through and I'm hoping for a bumper crop of orchids this year (it was good last year and we had more lesser Butterfly Orchids than last)plus the coupe of Hazel cut last year might start showing some nice wild flowers too.

Greyman

[Kentish Man]

Hmm, I think you've probably got a point there...

On a similar vein, what do people think about walking around woods in the snow - is this not also a bad thing (more so than usual) for the woodland floor layer? For example, you could unwittingly be trampelling down new growth, although walking about a bit might generally help with the thaw (except for your footprints which always seem to take longer to melt!).

[tracy]

Good point Greyman, I will mention it to them.

Kentish man, we follow our paths whenever we can , snow or no snow, so we know we are not tramping much. Birds love it and the robin follows us in the hope we uncover bugs for him to eat under the snow!

[greyman]

Same for us here - as we have tracks we try to keep to them most times during the year. Obviously you can't always stay persacerly on the path if you're working a different coupe or clearing a fallen tree.

Thanks Tracy - I also have a similar issue with Spring Watch and recently Snow Watch - they were extoling the virtues and encouraging everyone to go out into 'the woods' without any mention to make sure that there is public access. Perhaps I am to much of a pedant but if you don't tell Joe Public they'll never understand!

Well I'm off home now and I was hoping to get out in the mud this weekend (I might even look for them there little furry critters) but the forecast is not promising here in West Sussex.

[Twybill]

I think we should be getting concerned whether we can keep access to our woodlands private. There is now open access to a lot of the countryside and soon to be the same on all coastal areas.

I think it is possible that woodlands may be the next target for access, particularly those near urban areas.

The new chairman of the Forestry Commission is Pam Warhurst. She was until recently a Member of the Board of Natural England, where she was the lead non-executive member working on the Countryside & Rights of Way Bill. Whether her new appointment has any bearing on the subject of woodland access, is open for discussion.

[tracy]

PTES said that they do give more guidelines on the website and they will reply more fully on Monday. Lovely folk they are ;-)

[Nida]

Hi Greyman - just to set your mind at rest - on our website there's text - right near the beginning of what to do if you want to carry out a nut hunt - that says, If need be, ask permission from the wood or hedgerow owner to conduct the survey. And also in the printed booklet on page it says 2. Get permission – please check with the land owner, even if the woodland or hedgerows have public footpaths through or along them. We do not encourage or condone trespassing. Also on page 10 there's more information about access and the fact that most woodland is privately owned and that it's imperative to get permission to enter people's woods.

Nida

[greyman]

Nida,

Thank you for getting back to us with this information - I hear what you say and am pleased to hear it. Let's hope that the great British public out there take note and understand too. I hope you will forgive my rather jaundiced view: I, along with others out there, have experiences of "we can go anywhere we want" meetings in our woods.

Thanks once again for getting back to us.

Greyman

[lesthetreenut]

I so sympathise with everyone on this topic. I want to go everywhere myself, yet feel that I would like to control who tramples my orchis in a wood I owned! I think the answer is walking a fine line of snappy notices and fencing or otherwise containing sensitive spots as signed management areas. Pet bears may also help but, like people, they leave footprints in the snow! (The occasional bloody mess too.)

Re the snow, visitors mainly want to empty their dogs on a perimeter path. Your keeping to one in the snow will avoid your tracks leading folk to your foxhole or whatever of tools or well bagged food and regular sprinkling of male urine around it will prevent families of accommodation poor animals moving in. You can make a path above (on logs maybe) or without snow to some sites, or cover tracks, to some points but best not bother for the short time snow is lying. In a public or a private wood I do not want to be followed to where I am growing a honeysuckle twist staff, or the best place to gather nuts, by the tracks I leave. Though most uninvited visitors are ignorant, even they can get a clue that you are going somewhere from your tracks into the wildwood.

Close to the entrance, it is nice to have a wildlife feeding station with a water source and a log nearby to watch from. Folk spend little actual time in a wood other than to smoke or exercise their dogs and get from A to B or back to A quickly. The legitimate diversion of a feeding station may attract contributions and reduce time for mischief. Smoking is likely to take place in the more open feeding area.

Have fun,

Lesthetreenut