Ancient tradition bringing life back into New Forest after wildfire
It comes after a wildfire tore through 230 football fields worth of land over the summer
The return of an ancient tradition's helping to bring life back into the New Forest following a wildfire which tore through 230 football fields worth of land.
Pannage season invites commoners to release their pigs into the forest until November to eat the acorns, which can be toxic to other wildlife such as horses.
Andrew Parry Norton's Chair of the Commoner's Defence Association.
He said: "The forest is a huge area and if you look at it as a percentage of the forest, it's only a small area affected.
"So it's enough room for the pigs, the ponies, the cattle to move out and go somewhere else.
"That area will cover quite quickly and it's really starting to green up in places.
"The pigs - they'll walk through it, they'll cross over it, and they won't pay a lot of attention to it.
"They'll move on to where the acorns are."
He told us how important it is to still allow these animals to roam in the months from now until November.
Mr Parry Norton added: "The forest is reliant on these animals to create the landscape.
"These animals have created this unique landscape and the pigs are part of it.
"The forest, although it's open to everybody to come and visit, it's a national park, it's a working forest, and these animals are part of that."