I ALWAYS remember one particular lecture from my student days. It was one of those role-playing, brainstorming type of lessons. Normally I hated these as I was painfully shy and introverted in my younger days (I always did the illustrations for group presentations), but this one was different because the cause that I was arguing for was one that I believed in passionately.

We were all asked to pretend that we were in the heart of a thick forest. We had to come up with words to describe how the woodland affected our feelings. I was actually quite shocked to discover that, out of a class of 30 fairly level-headed environmental management students, I was the only one who had anything positive to say about it. The majority of them thought of woodlands as frightening, lonely and dangerous places. In my make-believe world I felt safe, adventurous and alive.

After much discussion and argument, it was concluded that those who didn't feel comfortable with large areas of woodlands were those who didn't know much about them and who hadn't really had much experience of being in enclosed, forest conditions. They felt very claustrophobic and worried about what man-eating monster could be hiding behind the next tree.

It goes a long way to explaining why over three-quarters of our native forests have disappeared during the last 50 years. In fact, mankind has been hacking away at our woodlands since the early Stone Age. With the invention of bronze and iron the process sped up and the forests gave way to the axe and the plough. Romans introduced their own 'alien' species that competed with our own native trees. There were increasing demands for timber in the building and shipping industries. Bark was invaluable to the tanning trade. Wood in the form of charcoal was used in large quantities in the smelting process.

The Normans calculated that, when they arrived, the land was made up of only 15 per cent woodland area. They began managing their woodlands. The practices of coppicing and pollarding, although altering the shape of the tree, preserved numerous woodland tracts. Villagers were allowed the right to pasture pigs in the King's woodlands, and venison was reared exclusively for royal hunting purposes. Areas cleared of trees were enclosed for seven years to allow regeneration to begin. Landowners were rewarded for planting new trees. By the beginning of the 18th Century, a tree planting craze had begun. Many of our stately parks were landscaped during this period.

The positive trend soon changed. More ships were needed for the Navy, railways had to be built and we survived two world wars. Centuries of planting were wiped out in just a few years. This led to the establishment of the Forestry Commission that went wild in planting up any spare areas of land. However, they didn't use any of our hardwood natives as they would take too long to become commercially viable. They planted conifers, mainly Scots and Corsican pine and Sitka spruce. You can argue that it is better to have any tree than none at all. Conifer woodlands do have an eco-system all of their own, one that supports many wildlife species. More often than not nowadays it is these areas that have become sanctuaries for our wildlife.

It is this ever-changing process that has shaped our countryside as we know it today. I look out from my sitting room window towards the hills and find it hard to visualise that, a few thousand years ago, they would have been completely covered with trees. Our moorlands are not 'natural'. They have been groomed and shaped as a response to the needs of mankind. However, the 'bald' hills are our heritage. They remind us that we have a duty and a need to keep just a few areas wild and free. Some areas where we can stay in touch with our bond with nature, because if we don't, we become frightened of it and will want to destroy it.

*l Listen to Radio Cleveland every Sunday morning between 11am and midday to hear more of Brigid's gardening advice.