Category Archives: Legal matters

The Wildlife Gardener has already put on record her disdain for the game of golf – or at least for some of its adherents. The Ranger has some sympathy with this view. Whilst it’s certainly true that some golf courses provide a positive enhancement to biodiversity and wildlife conservation; it can also be claimed that some of the most regrettable abuses heaped upon our environment are committed in the name of the sport. Recently, a Welsh court turned the tables on a developer who’d committed one such misdemeanour.

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Round about this time of year The Ranger always gets a query or two about firewood. There’s the idea going around, rather conveniently, that there is a legal right for anyone to take fallen wood for firewood.

A typical enquiry was this one, from Ranger reader Graham:

I understand that common folk such as myself were given the right to collect firewood for personal use from common land as part of the great Magna Carta. Or have these rights gradually disappeared as land has been ‘stolen’ by the landed gentry?

So, is he right?

Actually, no. There is no general right in English law to collect wood for any purpose. In simple terms, all wood belongs to somebody, normally the person who owns the tree it grew on. You can’t lawfully take it away without their permission. It’s as simple as that. The fact that plenty of people do help themselves to fallen wood doesn’t make it legally right that they do so. It’s a very practical way of getting rid of surplus wood, as any ranger knows. If someone asks you for wood, you have to refuse. But if you don’t need logs yourself then rather than sweat and gather all your logs up into the trailer and lug them back to the depot, just pile them neatly by the side of the path. Next morning when you return to the worksite they will have mysteriously evaporated. Very convenient, but not in any way a legal right.

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Ranger reader Vanessa poses a very interesting question about the Roman snail Helix pomatia. She asks what the legal position is concerning captive-bred pet Helix pomatia in people’s homes. (Update: the answer is shown at the bottom of this post) By extrapolation one can also include in this question all the escargots sold and eaten in restaurants, as these are Helix pomatia even though few if any originate in the UK.

Interestingly, since April 2008 the Roman snail has had limited protection under the Wildlife and Countryside Act. In England only it is protected from intentional taking, injury or killing, as well as possession and sale. As far as wild snails are concerned this makes sense. But what about snails sold in restaurants, and what about ‘pet’ snails? Are escargot-munchers flirting with a life of garlicky-flavoured crime? Continue reading →