It's easy to see the forest as permanent, an unchanging landscape preserved in aspic. And, yeah, there are parts of the forest which are ancient and unchanged, though there are also parts of the forest which are used as they were for centuries, for the production of timber. Not so much these days for the deciduous hardwood of the majestic Oak and Beech, but for the quicker growing cash crop coniferous trees. Slufters was originally enclosed and planted in 1862, though the Oaks first planned have long gone (accept for those which flank the brook which runs through Slufters Bottom), to be replaced in more recent times by conifers which themselves are now being harvested. I'm not uncertain what will replace them this time, though I think the enclosure might be being returned to open heath. It's easy to forget that a fair proportion of the New Forest is in reality treeless exposed open heath with wetland heath and mire filled hollows; and would have been even more so in years gone by.
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