Why has so much valuable land close to Copenhagen been given over to forest?
From a historic perspective, the forest of Hareskov was formerly the king’s hunting ground. Other estates of the Danish royalty encompassing gardens and grounds have been turned into greenspace as well, such as Rosenborg Castle’s surrounding garden. Rosenborg’s garden is a public park that depicts national pride and other properties preserves the royal hunting ground as forest land. The Danish have a sense of pride in their landscape and this forest is a good example of the Danish landscape. The forest is mostly made of beech trees on a generally flat landscape, a normal characteristic of Danish topography.
Probably the reason for Hareskov's preservation was because Denmark has had a history of deforestation. At one point, the Danish needed to rebuild a fleet of ships for their navy but there were not enough trees in Denmark to construct a navy. This has made Denmark more conscious of trees and forests. Thus probably why the forest has stayed because wood is a limited resource.
From an urban planning perspective, the train that has a stop by the forest is one of the “fingers” of the extended sustainable finger plan of Copenhagen. Transportation is aligned with the sustainable goals in this plan so, in this sense, it is important for people in the city to be brought to the forest as a balance to the urban environment with forestry greenspace. Danes put a lot of value on their greenspace and with only 5.5 million people living in Denmark there is no risk of a housing crisis and no real need to build on that land. While Copenhagen is a thriving city, it is not rapidly growing. The forest is on valuable land; however, this natural resource is not needed for development. The Danes seem to place a higher value on greenspace than on the value of real estate. The preservation of national identity and culture is a priority that focuses on the needs of people and natural resources.
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