TEN years ago, this week, The Northern Echo backed a campaign to save the region’s forests from privatisation and to guarantee they would be open to the public for generations to come. Opposition to the Government’s plan to sell off thousands of acres of the region’s woodland was growing, after politicians, community groups and celebrities attacked the proposal. The privatisation of Forestry Commission woodland was set to raise £74.5m over the five years that would follow. But critics of the plan said it would leave the future of some of the country’s most precious forests, including Hamsterley, in County Durham, and Dalby, in North Yorkshire, facing an uncertain future.