THE controversy about the planting of a large chunk of broadleaved woodland in Bilsdale goes to the very heart of the debate about what national parks are for.

There can be no question that the planting scheme - 46 hectares - is large and will alter the character of this part of the dale once it grows to full maturity. The gently-rolling pasture land dotted with cattle and sheep will be gone.

The landscape will revert to how it might have looked many hundreds of years ago before farmers cultivated the land and created the landscape we see today.

Some say that is wrong and that the North York Moors National Park is charged with conservation of the special character of the landscape when it was established 50 years ago not recreating how it might have been back in the mists of time.

But there are environmental and wildlife benefits to the scheme and should anybody argue with the principle of planting broadleaved woodland which, generally, has been lost to development in recent years?

To preserve in aspic or to let the landscape evolve? That's a pertinent question in the national parks' anniversary year.