DBE in Louisiana - Battle of the 100 Acre Wood

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The Battle of the 100 Acre Wood

The 100 Acre Wood of Winnie the Pooh's adventures was based on Ashdown Forest, in Sussex, where author A A Milne lived in later life.

Visitors to the forest can see many of the enchanting spots where Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin found adventure. Galleon's Lap, Pooh Corner, and Poohsticks Bridge are some of the enchanted places that appear in Milne's books.

Poohsticks Bridge

Pooh Corner

The current Battle of the 100 Acre Wood is between local protesters (who have threatened to chain themselves to trees) and the Governing Body of the High Weald Forest, which includes Ashdown.

The project is to restore the High Weald forest to its pre-war blend of heath and woodland, and this can only be achieved by cutting down swathes of trees.

The problem is that people who used to eke out a living harvesting heathers, grasses and rushed have now moved on to paid employment. This causes an imbalance in the traditional 60:40 ratio between heath and woods, and if unchecked, officials say the entire area will be thickly wooded within 75 years.

And of course, isn't there always money involved? It doesn't hurt that cash is being provided by the Government's higher-level stewardship program.

A large area of Pooh's "enchanted place" is now reduced to stumps. Elizabeth Anderson was quoted in "The Independent" on April 21, 2007:

"I feel a sense of impotent rage. They seem to have got a whole lot of money to preserve insects, but don't care about trees or people."