There is a lack of resources to protect the Forest
It is estimated that people make around 20 million visits to the New Forest each year. This puts great pressure on the area and if positive steps are not taken the New Forest will be changed so that it is no longer the attractive place people like to visit. It is something of an accident that it remains attractive today. Commoners and Foresters who lived and worked in it, looked after the Forest for centuries. In doing so they delivered the conservation, landscape and recreation facilities now enjoyed by everyone.
Unfortunately, rural incomes have declined especially when so many modern regulations add costs. So there is a great danger that the complex mixture of inputs that have created and maintained the Forest up to now may be lost.
Without sufficient funds to develop and sustain the key features of conservation and suitable facilities for visitors the New Forest will deteriorate irrevocably and we shall lose the attractive place we all appreciate today.
We believe that those who enjoy the New Forest today would like it to remain enjoyable in the future and would like to help directly to ensure this doesn't happen.
The New Forest Trust is here to help those who enjoy the New Forest contribute directly to maintaining it for all our children as well as ourselves.
The New Forest - what is taken from it? Millions of people visit the New Forest every year. It is like a table from which everyone selects something they would like to enjoy.
The New Forest - finding the money There are only three main legs to support the table. The trouble is that when the income from all these is put back into the New Forest it is not enough to conserve and protect the Forest; and this problem is going to get worse.
Commoners do not earn enough to make it really worthwhile keeping animals on the Open Forest. Timber prices have fallen so traditional maintenance work in the woods is seriously threatened. Reorganisation of Government Departments dealing with rural affairs continues to threaten potential support available directly and indirectly from the Government.
It seems obvious that people who love and enjoy the New Forest
will have to step in to ensure it is conserved.
The New Forest Trust has been set up as a vehicle for those people those who are real friends of the New Forest, who want to see the New Forest survive, to contribute directly to its conservation. By doing so they can ensure it remains a valuable place for as far as we can see in the future.
