Huts in Woods ( an opportunity?)

[Wulbert]

I'm just making folk aware of this upcoming event which aims to increase the number of huts being built in, and from wood. I think that re-introducing* a culture of ordinary people having a simple, timber, off-grid hut in the country will be an opportunity for people who manage and work with wood and trees. E.G. as a small wood owner myself I have already employed a horse-logger, foresters and mini-forwarder operator to help towards my dream of a wee hut in my woodland. Next up I'm hiring a Woodmizer or Jet sawmill operator to turn Larch thinning into cladding boards. 

 

* I say "re-introducing" because it used to be more common in the past and most other Northern European countries have a vibrant culture of a family cabin, or Dacha, in the wild country. A place which stays in the family for generations.

 

Hutters' Rally 2020: Making Huts Happen

WWW.EVENTBRITE.CO.UK

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On February 8th 2020, Reforesting Scotland's Thousand Huts campaign will be hosting a Hutters’ Rally for around...

 

[Jayjw]

Hi there where are you based I own a timberking mobile saw mill based in Kent.

[Rough Hewn]

You still only get 28 days a year without planning permission.....

[Acerforestry]

This all sounds fantastic to me, but as above...currently 28 days a year tops. Our government do not want "alternative" (even if eco friendly, built from sustainable materials blah blah blah) people living in the woods or forest. We all need to be shoehorned into overpriced, boring and badly built brick structures on estates / in towns that a lot of us won't actually own until we hit a half century. I will keep a keen eye on possible progress though and best of luck to the OP

[Guest Gimlet]

Does the 28 days apply to the hut or the site? Or both?

[sandspider]

The site I believe. So you can only camp in your own woodland 28 days a year.

[difflock]

Timeshare for Travellers perhaps  .  .  .

[Rough Hewn]

It sounds dreadful to me. You buy your little plot of woodland from a company who has overpaid for the wood making it commercially unviable, but good woodland management isn't their business model. They subdivide it and sell it to would be weekend Bear Ghrylls at 10 times what it's worth. You, along with all your neighbouring plot owners build a cabin, shed, park your caravan and trailer there, put in roads and hardstanding, clear an area for a barbecue pit, nail lights to the trees, put up the keep out notices, fell your 5 cubic m a quarter, so for a 10 plot woodland exempt timber removal goes from 20m cube to 200m cube a year, go out at nights and weekends make lots of noise and and have a wonderful time. But at what cost to the woodland which becomes a fractured habitat with little or no good management, but an awful lot of bad management, it damages the ecosystem, habitat, environment, wildlife etc, etc. Eventually the woodland ceases to be a woodland. Bad, a very very bad idea which is disastrous for woodland management and the woodland as an entity.
 
Anyone who considers themselves a professional when it comes to woodland/tree management should know better.
 
"I say "re-introducing" because it used to be more common in the past" So were lots of things you don't want back, bubonic plague, small pox, infant mortality, slave labour, subsidence living, severe poverty etc.

Sadly true. [emoji20]

[Mick Dempsey]

There is a woodland near where I live that got sold off in plots.

 

I was there a couple of years ago, full of bloody wigwams and shit like that.

 

Awful.

[AHPP]

The (albeit subjective) harm to woodlands aside, it's a great business model. I especially like the bit where generally ghastly people get ripped off. I can't wait for the bubble to burst and they all sell up because they've had enough of arguing with neighbours about leaves blowing into their plot etc. I'm going to make utterly insulting offers, firmly looking them in the eye to make sure they know that I know that they know their predicament.