WALES'S biggest landowner is to open thousands of acres of woodland to the public for the first time. The Forestry Commission, which owns more than 600,000 acres of land in Wales, has decided to grant access to the land as part of a shift in policy. Woods and forests were excluded from the Government's "right to roam" bill, but the new measures would mean a permanent right of access to woodland. This means Forestry Commission land in Wales - roughly equivalent to the size of Carmarthenshire - will be open to the public for the first time. During the 1980s and 1990s almost half of Britain's woodland was sold off to private landowners, many of whom refused access to the public. The new measures would prevent this "privatisation" from happening again in future. The Forestry Commission is also seeking to buy up as much of the land it manages on behalf of private owners - around 200,000 acres in England and Wales - so that it too can be freed for public access. The new measures have been designed by Lord Clark, a former Labour Minister who now heads the Commission. He wants to see leisure activities given the same importance as wood production by the Commission. Welsh forests produce more than 1.4m tonnes of wood a year, worth around £400m a year to the Welsh economy. Lord Clark said, "The forests belong to the people of this country, and we are doing this for their enjoyment. "It is a new dawn, it will increase the Commission's problems in managing the forests, but we will be able to cope with that. "Our approach is that forestry is not just about trees, but about people - taking care of their social, recreational and environmental concerns." Welsh woodlands have attempted to diversify beyond wood production in recent years, with mountain bike trails at sites such as Coed-y-Brenin, near Dolgellau, and Gwydyr Forest in Gwynedd establishing an international reputation for excellence. | 
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