Continuing the Crook County News Since 1884

This Side of the Pond

Notes from an Uprooted Englishwoman

I’ve always been impressed with Wyoming’s dedication to its natural resources. Hearing about our local tree farmers, looking at side-by-side photographs of the Black Hills now and in the time of Custer, reading about mine reclamations and efforts to revitalize areas hit by fire – these are not concepts I’d really thought about before I moved here.

Even the fact that the Forest Service’s efforts to update its management plan has led to a little controversy only speaks to me of this deeply held commitment to the land. In my humble, city-bred opinion, it’s a wonderful thing.

I found myself pondering on it recently during a conversation with the husband, and it all started with a door. Specifically, a 950-year-old door within Westminster Abbey, which is still in use today and – surprisingly, because I have my doubts about the quality of seal in those times – is in pretty good nick for its age.

When I showed him the picture, the husband made an off-hand comment that the door is even more special when you consider that those ancient trees have largely ceased to exist in the UK. Naturally, this got my hackles up, because I’m not sure you can find a much greener country than the one I started out in.

It turned out that he did have at least a relatively good point. Throughout my country’s long history, we’ve had a habit of clearing out forest to create more and more farmland.

If it wasn’t for human beings, experts believe that most of the islands would be covered with mature oaks, but obviously that’s not the case. Today, about 13% of the land surface of Britain is home to trees – up from its lowest point of 5% in 1919.

We can be forgiven for that particular travesty, I think, because it happened during World War I, when we couldn’t import much wood and were hurting for timber. After that, the government created a Forestry Commission to produce a strategic reserve of timber, and things got better.

Still, when you consider that other countries in Europe boast much more woodland – almost three quarters of Finland is covered in trees, for instance – it does paint a picture of a forest preservation program that Wyoming would find distinctly inadequate.

But have those ancient trees really disappeared? My instant reaction was to disagree, because of where I grew up.

Close to my home is the oldest example of habitat preservation that I am personally aware of, I’m proud to say. Ironically, it’s called the New Forest, which probably seemed like an excellent name at the time.

That time, however, was a thousand years ago, so there’s nothing remotely new about this forest. But it was new to William the Conqueror, the Norman who had just taken the English throne after shooting an arrow through the eye of King Harold during the Battle of Hastings.

King William decided it should become a royal forest that was only used for royal deer hunts. It was proclaimed as such in the Domesday Book and so it remained, with the public only allowed limited access and farming banned.

Slowly, over the years, access to the public was restored in the form of “rights of common”, which allowed the inhabitants to graze their animals and gather fuel wood. Grazing is still an important part of the ecology today, along with a process called “pannage”, in which pigs are turned out for 60 days a year to hoover up the acorns.

William the Conqueror’s desire for a hunting ground led to him accidentally creating an early example of a conservation area. Today, it has the highest possible conservation status and is one of the most important locations in Europe for nature, with a unique mix of landscapes that – thanks to William refusing to let anyone into it – still includes ancient woodlands, wetlands, bogs and open heath.

Its bogs – known as mires – are some of the last left in Europe. Thoroughly trouncing the husband’s argument that we don’t have any of our old trees left, the New Forest also has around 1000 recorded ancient trees – believed to be the highest concentration of them in Europe.

Within the New Forest, you will find (because, these days, you’re allowed in there as much as you’d like) 1000-year-old yews, 800-year-old oaks and 400-year-old beech trees. You’ll also find 175 monuments including 200 Bronze Age burial mounds and barrows, hill forts from the Iron Age, Roman roads and Medieval hunting lodges.

It will not surprise you to hear that this accidental natural paradise is also home to numerous rare species, including some that can only be found in this habitat. You can find 75% of all species of dragonflies and damselflies there, all six of the reptiles native to the UK and endangered birds like the nightjar and woodlark.

Now a national park, it remains 120 square miles of landscape that’s little different to how it would have appeared in prehistoric times, with ancient trees and species you’ll find almost nowhere else. The pigs still snuffle for their acorns, the New Forest ponies still graze their way through the gorse – it’s only really the villages that show signs of modern life.

Protecting the land usually takes time, energy and dedication, not to mention deep specialist knowledge – all the reasons I admire what we do in Wyoming. I don’t wish to take anything away from those admirable efforts with this story, because, while it does turn out that it’s possible to preserve a forest by accident, you have to be a greedy, selfish conqueror to get it done.

 
 

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