Our rally to 'Save our Forests' celebrated the Government's cancellation of the public consultation to sell off all the country's public forests at the weekend, but Lakeland forests remain under threat.

Speaking to a crowd of over 600 people at Saturday's Whinatter Forest Rally (19 February), Mountaineer Chris Bonington and Lord Clark of Windermere stressed the need to stop the Government's already agreed plan to dispose of 15% of the Forestry Commission forests in England.

Jack Ellerby of Friends of the Lake District, and spokesperson for Save Lakeland's Forests said: ‘The Government has thankfully seen sense and abandoned its plans to sell off or dispose of all of the public forest estate. However, they have only ‘suspended' the 15% in their spending review for the next four years. This sounds a small amount, but because of the concentration of forests within Cumbria and especially within the Lake District National Park, this could mean losing Forestry Commission management of up to 40% of all the forests in Cumbria.'

‘The second issue is that the Forestry Commission still face major (30%) budget and staff cuts. There has been a breakdown in trust with Government on forestry and we hope they don't have a hidden agenda to down-grade the wonderful role of Commission by stealth?'

The Government's next step is to set up an ‘Independent Panel' to report back to the Government in the autumn on the:
i). Future direction of forestry and woodland policy in England;
ii). Role of the Forestry Commission; and
iii). Role of the public forest estate.

A common message from all Saturday speakers, which also included climber Leo Houlding, Jamie Read Copeland MP and Tony Cunningham Workington MP, was that this Panel should have a Cumbrian representative voice.

Supporters at the rally raised £440 towards the running of the campaign and to go towards creating a new woodland to celebrate the campaign victory to stop the sell off of all public forests.

For more pictures of the rally, see our Facebook page.

See our Stop the Forests Sell Off campaign page, also www.savelakelandsforests.org.uk