On December 19th, 2024, Ås Avis published an article with the title Nå skal det hogges i Vollskogen: –⁠ Skal være til minst mulig sjenanse (Now Vollskogen will be cut: “It must be as little nuisance as possible”).  In this article Opsahl Bolig (the developer of around 200 family homes called ‘Ås Hageby’) announced that they want to be done with cutting Vollskogen until March 2025.

Opsahl reasons this aim with the intention to cut at best while the forest ground is frozen. While this aim likely entails lower costs for Opsahl themselves, it is only the bare minimum to not cause even more harm (e.g. severe soil disturbance) when cutting down a forest. Yet, this aim is presented as a laudable sustainability effort. The same goes for the preservation of certain protected tree species and individual trees, again a bare minimum requirement. Otherwise, what meaning would the legal protection of any species even have? At the same time, Viken Skog (the executing company) has one year to do the job, which keeps Opsahl the doors open to cut whenever, even during breeding season.

Opsahl Bolig is not only using the frozen forest ground as a means to present themselves as environmentally concerned. This argument is visibly intended to pressure SiÅs and NMBU to agree to use of Nedre Pentagonvei – as fast as possible. So does their statement that, if SiÅs or NMBU were to reject this agreement, the entire project Ås Hageby would have to be cancelled (“uten tilgang til veien stanser prosjektet vårt opp”).

Currently, Nedre Pentagonvei is the only way to access the forest for transporting in harvesters and other cutting machines, and out the dead trees. Constructing another road, for example from the east end of the forest, would increase their costs dramatically.

We take Opsahl Bolig by their word and urge SiÅs and NMBU to reject their agreement to the use of Nedre Pentagonvei as a transportation road, and thereby, to reject Ås Hageby once and for all.

Not only because using a road that leads through the middle of student housing and passes by the homes of many other people, for example in Herumveien, as a construction access road will inevitably mean immense traffic, as well as sound and air pollution for those residents. In addition to these valid concerns, we want those that decorate themselves with sustainability to finally La Vollskogen Leve!