If you've not heard by now, you've most likely been living in a tree house - yesterday the government in the form of Environment Secretary, Caroline Spelman publically apologised for their ill thought out forestry sell-off plans and, basically, ditched them - for now, at least.
That's great news. For one thing, it shows that no matter how cynical you might be about the givernment's cost cutting measures, there is at least some measure of instant public accountability in the internet age. Around half a million people signed the petition at 38 Degrees, numerous individuals wrote to their MPs, public figures spoke out, protestors rallied and, given that the measures seemed likely to cost the state money as well, finally the government saw sense and backed down.
Which is why, although tomorrow's protest rally at Whinlatter Forest in the northern Lakes is going ahead, it's now a victory celebration with speakers including Sir Chris Bonington and Cumbrian native, Leo Houlding set to address the gathering.
If you do want to go along, it kicks off at the Visitor Centre at 1pm, with an 11am start for the Mountain bike ride to Save Our Forests - mountain bikers being one of the most active users of forest areas thanks to the Forestry Commission's policy of building trail centres at many of their forests.
Before you get too carried away, bear in mind that the government hasn't undertaken to halt the sale of forest land at the currently legal rate of 15% per annum. In the words of Save lakeland's Forests, 'we are not out of the woods yet'.
And the government climb down has achieved pretty much what it was intended to. Forests are no longer front page news, instead it's all about AV this morning and in a week or two's time, most people will have forgotten that the forest campaign ever happened.
Don't Forget The National Parks
What you shouldn't forget, and ironically, for a lot of OMers, who are hill and mountain walkers, this is far closer to the door than the forestry sell-off, is that the government has slashed National Park Authority budgets by effectively almost a third over the next four years.
Right now, the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority has drafted a new budget which is the subject of a public consulation, but will almost certainly see staff redundancies and the end of some services in the Park and the same process is happening in other National Parks too.
Of course that doesn't mean the sell-off or privatisation of the Parks or even of their administration and right now, the reality is that no-one's really sure what the cuts will mean for users of National Parks, but one thing's for sure, don't be lulled into a false sense of security by the forestry sell-off u-turn, we're still very much in the firing line.
