Baby boar have overtaken celebrities and landscapes to be on the cover of the new Visitor Guide to the Forest of Dean. Two hoglets, playing in the leaves, by Ben Locke take pride of place and the new guide makes it clear that the boar are a unique tourist bonus for the Forest.
Council leader, Patrick Molyneux, says in “The Forester” that “ the aim of the brochure is to attract people to visit the area and spend money in the district. The Wild Boar have attracted a lot of attention to the Forest, including TV coverage from programmes like the BBC’s Autumnwatch. This is a very striking image, which makes an excellent cover for our brochure and encourages people to look inside and discover more.”
In addition, Friends of the Boar have received a letter from Forestry Commission England in Bristol which makes it clear that the reprieve for the boar is specifically designed to allow the Council sufficient time to review the target of 90 animals and to make any new recommendations and changes they want.
Brian Mahony, the Director of Forest Enterprise England says
“ Our overall aim is to continue to manage a policy agreed by the Council and Verderers and we will work with these organisations to ensure that our approach is in line with what has been agreed.”
The new approach by the Forestry Commission is to be welcomed but since the Friends of the Boar believe that the Wild Boar in the Forest have been much depleted by Forestry Commission shooting, we hope that the Council will upwardly revise the number of boar allowed in the Forest by a significant amount.
JM
The question that has not been asked is "How many Wildboar are being shot on the boundaries of the Forest of Dean, by recreational hunters ?". These hunters are not regulated by the Friends, FC, Council or DEFRA, and yet are shooting Boar all year round. I have heard reports in the region of 200+ boar being shot/trapped on private land by these hunters, within the last 12 months. Can this unchecked killing go on ?
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