Has anyone or would anyone buy woodland

puddy

me and OH quite like the idea of having our own little patch of woodland, is this feasible? I see the signs up everywhere for woodland for sale.

We wouldnt mind getting somewhere that maybe wasnt woodland and then growing trees on it, to make it woodland, is this possible, are there rules about where you can plant trees and stuff??

we saw some land on an auction site for about 14k, it didnt sell at teh last auction and its already woodland. on the other hand there was another bit of land somewhere else, the picture looked like pasture and there was a horse on it, if you bought something like this, would you be able to plant trees on it?

what are th pros and cons about this?

Cat695

try google

I found this is may answer many of your questions

http://www.woodlands.co.uk/owning-a-wood/faq.php

dopester

I might buy some if it were in a location I like, and at the right price. Today's prices mostly don't represent value to me. In many instance, apart from enjoying your land, where is the yield/return? Too many plots are very over-valued against a UK which is big on high property values, big on debt, but very short on money.

Also I'd have to do more info for coppicing or whatever else you might be required to legally do, to keep woodland in good safe / legal order (cause I've no idea - although I once saw a branch fall like a javelin, pierce a car roof, and just miss the baby's head inside the car). And a guy recently died whilst out running after being hit by a falling branch.

When someone buys a house all the routine checks are carried out to ensure the purchaser is not taking on more than he or she bargained for, but too often new woodland owners don't find out about any legal obligations they may be inheriting until it's too late.

The dream of owning a piece of woodland - somewhere for the children to play at weekends, somewhere quiet to watch wildlife or an investment that could yield some tax-free income from the timber - can quickly become a nightmare if the buyer doesn't do his homework.

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/newsrele.nsf/WebPressReleases/E5D640AD117DE54180256975003A7BCE

Owning a Woodland can be an extremely rewarding experience, however it brings with it responsibilities, namely tree safety, in addition there are other factors to consider to successfully manage a woodland. As an owner or occupier of a woodland, British law places a duty on you to safeguard property and persons from coming to harm from your trees, as a result of your acts or omissions. Where woodland runs close to roads and footpaths the risks increase.

puddy

we wouldnt want yeild or return, not sure what it could yeild or return. didnt know you have to spend time making trees safe, that could be a problem

Sammy85_2

I guess you might need some kind of public liability insurance incase someone trips over on your land and hurts themselves?

puddy

but unless its got right of ways or access what are they doing on my land?

dizziblonde

My mother has a lot of trees in her back garden (she basically lives on a riverbank and half the garden is essentially wild woodland going up the river valley). One thing to bear in mind is that you might well find that there are tree preservation orders on any place which drastically limits what you can do with it - in my mum's case, she can't even cut down the dreadful leylandii hedge that was a previous resident's bright idea, because those trees are covered by the same TPOs in place to protect the "original" ones.

Geenie

My BIL bought a plot of woodland about 5 years ago, an hours drive from where he and the family live in London. It was a large site, divided up and sold in managable sections, so they are one of several owners.

Thay adore having it. With two young boys, they often go there camping for a few days or a week in the summer, cooking off log fires. They have built a tree house and my BIL has done chain saw training so that he can thin out the trees safely.

Tree planting is usually encouraged. I have no idea of what is available on a small scale, but certainly anything that encourages native species and habitat for wildlife is helped by grants on the larger.

Good luck OP. What you are considering I think is wonderful. Management is the key, and how to get the wood to work for you. Get a woodburner that could heat your home. Having a source of heat that isn't dependant on outside resources is a great thing, when countries are arguing over gas lines, oil prices etc and we don't know if the present energy systems will be able to cope in the future.

ninky_2

i've thought about this myself before. i know of someone who bought woodland, they went camping there at weekends with the kids and then sold it after a couple of years (the novelty did wear off) and made a nice bit on it.

not sure but i think there is a market for woodland for those looking to avoid certain taxes (capital gains??).

you are right about not being able to put trees on any bit of land. i remember seeing one of those property shows where some guy bought a land he wanted to turn into an arboritum in memory of his wife and it took a fair bit of wrangling to get the permission as it was agricultural land.

personally i'd like to see a party that suggested they would make a concerted effort to restore significant amounts of woodland to the uk. the amounts of deforestation that has gone on is shocking. whenever i go back to visit my folks in the countryside i really notice trees that have been removed - not that there are many left now anyway.

a bit off topic but i think deforestation is a far bigger issue than climate change. deforested land is a lot less able to withstand freak weather and actually contributes to flooding and landslides (no roots to take water down or hold soil together).

good luck with your plan!

C_Mababejive

Just put a static caravan on it and hey presto..you have a rural retreat....just like a traveller.