An assault too far

Press, 6 December 1989, Page 22

An assault too far

From the “Economist,” London

IN A small wood at Bassingboume in Cambridgeshire you would never know that east-west relations had improved. Its 14 leafy acres have eight base camps, two fuel dumps, a POW camp and sandbag and log emplacements. Nor is Bassingbourne unique. Quite the contrary. Well over 300 woods — mostly in England — resound to daily armed skirmishes. They are the setting for combat games, the new craze for executives that only arrived from the United States a few years ago but already has up to a 100,000 peace-loving Britons exchanging a woodland stroll for camouflage gear and ammo. They may not be giving President Gorbachev insomnia — but they are causing conservationists a good deal of unhappiness. Combat games wreak havoc in a wood, flattening its ground vegetation and breaking off the sapling trees that are its future. The games vary widely in

format. Two teams — each up to 50 strong — attempt to capture their opponent’s flag. Much depends on the size of the wood and the nature of the terrain. Guns are powered by carbon dioxide gas. The ammo is coloured paint pellets. Good fun perhaps. Environmentally unfriendly, certainly. At Holden’s Wood in Essex, Dr Sarah Webster of the Nature Conservancy Council (N.C.C.) has catalogued the damage done by combat games. Wet flushes in

the wood are now quagmires, with most of their plants destroyed. On drier ground, bluebell and bracken has been trampled; shrubs and young trees smashed. Bare soil surrounds base camps where once dog’s mercury and ramsons flowered. Combat games are best in old woods 'on uneven terrain: the richest countryside for wildlife and in many areas all that remains of England’s primeval, tree-covered heritage. The N.C.C. reckons that up to a half of the country’s ancient woodlands have either been cleared for farming and building — or converted to plantations — since 1945. It “captures the excitment of childhood games like cops and robbers,” says the leaflet put out by one combat games organiser. Perhaps the N.C.C. could ginger up proceedings with the odd ambush or two? ©The Economist