But things change, and biodiversity is the name of today's game. Whereas we spent a good deal of time on forestry operations in the past, the emphasis now is on improving the range of wildlife. And hand-in-hand with this is an aim to offer more to our visitors. One volunteer's acid comment was: "prettifying the place up", but I wouldn't go that far!
In recent months we have been creating glades, vistas and one or two more seats - albeit through our own rough carpentry. Now it is the turn of the wildlife in that we are grading the rides to benefit insects, flowers, butterflies and anything else that slithers, waddles, jumps, hovers, flies, or crawls - or just sits.
The idea is to open up the rides to make them something like ten metres (33ft) across or more. But that is not the end of it. No way. There are several "architectural" considerations to be dealt with. First is need to grade the grass at the centre of the ride higher and higher into the undergrowth where the flowering grasses give way to small shrubs to bigger shrubs, then small trees into the big forest trees.
Second task is to make sure that the shrubs are useful food plants like hawthorn and spindle. These can only be cut back in the late winter. Which means that we will need a course of revision to recognise shrubs and trees in the winter! That's difficult enough in summer for most of us.
Thirdly, we have to make sure that the rides are not too shady and wet which will bring no benefit to the plants and insects. And fourthly, our little colony of dormice are not very partial to the open ground and prefer living in the trees. That means ensuring that at least some of the biggest trees are in touch with their neighbours over the ride to allow the dormice to bridge the gap.
That lot is quite a tall order, especially the contradiction of the openness of rides with dormice "bridges". But that is the way of nature. Left to its own devices one thing leads to another and, hey presto, you have a Wealden forest full of brambles, bracken and very few birds.
But a little careful management is a wondrous thing.
John Hall © 2009