Huts in Woods ( an opportunity?)

[openspaceman]

8 minutes ago, AHPP said:

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.

It's a piece of downland rather than a woodland where I shall be felling field edge ash next week. It was split into 20th of an acre plots and sold off, even to some chinese investors. The council have successfully stopped all development and the chap I work for has purchased all the accesses. He has granted the general public a permissive use, which in practice opens the whole field up. A good result all round as he has cut the scrub and returned it to a chalk downland again.

[Dan Maynard]

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.

Yeah maybe waiting for the bubble to burst is the thing to do, kind of feel it's not the right time to buy now.

[Billhook]

Buy a plot and build 13 huts on it.  =  364 days

[AHPP]

1 hour ago, EdwardC said:

The harm wood plots inflict on woodlands isn't subjective, it's a matter of fact. Your local GP is self-employed and has a good business model for their practice. Harold Shipman had a better business model, but you wouldn't want it rolled out to the NHS at large.

 

Wood plots are not a good business model for woodland management, they're disastrous.

Since we're already off topic...

 

It is subjective (all value is subjective). Ponds and brambles are great for naturewatchers but bad for housing developers. Clearings and wigwams are great for forest schools but poor for industrial coppicing. etc etc

 

I understand from your posts on here that you work for the government so may struggle to understand the notion that people's property is theirs to do what they want with. You don't have to understand or like people's choices but you do have to respect them (or they might stop respecting your property rights).

[sandspider]

1 hour ago, Dan Maynard said:

2 hours ago, AHPP said:

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.

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Yeah maybe waiting for the bubble to burst is the thing to do, kind of feel it's not the right time to buy now.

I've been keeping an eye on woodland prices for the past ten years or so as I wanted to buy a small wood. Prices per acre have only ever gone up.

In the end I bought a house with a bit of land and planted a woodland. Well, extended an existing copse...

[scbk]

4 hours ago, Mick Dempsey said:

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.

 

6 hours ago, EdwardC said:

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,

 

Sounds like a local wood that was a community "buy out", paid for with various grants and public money  it's like a theme park now

[AHPP]

23 minutes ago, EdwardC said:

I'm not off topic. Building huts in woodlands is what we're discussing. That is what wood lotting companies promote. Persuading the would-be weekend Bear Ghrylls or Ray Mears of this world that they can destroy ecosystems, environments and habitats and it's ok because it's their right to do so because they have no societal or moral obligation to the community at large is just a demonstration of the lack of professionalism of these companies who play on the ignorance and dreams of their clients.

 

I'm a consultant in a large multi-disciplinary private practice, (although I have been a forestry contractor, arb climber, Arb Assoc. Approved Contractor, contracts manager, LPA Tree Officer), and have no difficulty understanding peoples rights. I do however believe it's not just all about me, and the devil take the hindmost. I believe we have a moral and social compass that helps guide our professional decisions, with a view to sustainability. Sustainability being leaving this world without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

 

Respect is earned, it's not a given. It isn't one way as you seem to think, it's a two way thing. It's a matter of understanding the other persons point of view and compromising.

 

Understanding and compromising, that's a lot like good woodland management. Understand what you've got, identify your priorities, and manage accordingly, which will be a compromise which respects the woodland.

Value IS subjective. Huts and fairy lights make these people happy. The absence of those things makes you happy. Subjective. Different subjects like different things.

You say destroy etc. Bear in mind humans are part of the ecosystem too. If squirrels could, they'd slash and burn the trees, lay concrete and farm nuts in polytunnels. A few wigwams are neither here nor there. Man plans, god laughs. It'll all be trees again one day.

I stand slightly corrected on your employment but you do come across like a government worker.

[lux]

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.

That comment made me chuckle. Reminded me of the 90s when my cousin became a New Age traveller and went to live on the Isle of Wight in an old ambulance or something like that. I can clearly remember how pissed off my uncle was at the time [emoji23]

[Rob_the_Sparky]

Interesting how this veered.  I guess the whole huts in woods thing is a density thing.  If you are going to chop up woodland into sub-acre plots then you are really building a housing estate of huts.  That is very different from building a but in 10+ acres of woodland where the resident then crops and manages the woodland.

 

For those about freedom to do with what you own, it is not always the case.  You get restrictions on use for many types of land purchase and need permissions to change it if you want to do something not permitted.  E.g. you need permission to change a building's use from buisness to domestic and vica versa.  Some land also has agricultural ties.  Currently no you can't legally live in a hut in the wood more than 28 days a year.

 

What is described by EdwardC does sound really bad but huts in woods is not necessarily this (although probably are in anywhere apart from a few remote areas in the UK).  However, it is quite possible that the existing 28 days rule is part of the issue.  This makes these places holiday retreats and you can't manage woodlands like that.  Maybe the solution is one of restricting development and/or placing ties on what can be done with the land?

[Guest Gimlet]

The idea of living in a hut, in my own wood, on my own with the right to shoot all intruders appeals enormously. Living in some sort woodland "community" that will inevitably involve yurts and teepees, fairy lights, squealing kids and no doubt badly strummed guitars, is my idea of dying and going to hell. 

 

If anyone can suggest a place where I can do the former while avoiding the latter at all costs I'd be very interested.

Edited January 31, 2020 by Gimlet