If you look at a Forestry Commission map of key spots in England, you might be surprised to see that Santon Downham is marked instead of cities such as London, Norwich, Cambridge or Ipswich. But the tiny village is the hub for all forestry activity for a huge area stretching from North Norfolk right down to East London. Over 20,000ha of Thetford Forest are managed from the purpose built 1960s office complex in Santon Downham, base to 95 staff .

This section includes several articles about the work of Forest Enterprise:

The village's development in the 20th century has been shaped to a large degree by forestry, right from the 1920s when the run-down Downham Estate was bought. The landscape around the village evolved as the planting of Thetford Forest took hold New houses were built by the Forestry Commission, and occupied by its staff, and even the drinking water was provided by the Commission until 1998.

These days, few of the people who live in the village are directly employed in forestry, but it continues to have a major influence on the local economy, the local landscape - and even local gardens, as it provides the timber for much of the fencing and decking found in the garden centres and DIY stores around the area. Timber worth in excess of £4M is harvested from Thetford Forest each year.

Land management brings with it many objectives, in particular dealing with communities, the people that live within those communities and the visitors that come from far and wide. "We manage the forest to take care of all of their aspirations," he explains. Walking the dog, mountain biking, horse riding, motor rallying, archery and even husky sledge racing all take place within the forest . "We take pride in providing open access to the forest," says Mr Lyon. "It is straightforward to control health and safety and environmental issues if you put a fence round the area and lock a gate but very different if you are a working forest, as we are, providing some 200,000t of timber a year."

The priorities are with the social and environmental - the people and the habitat, he adds. "We manage our forest to provide quality timber for industry in balance with our other objectives of rural development, economic regeneration, recreation, access and conservation of our environment."

Forest design planning has evolved over the last 10 years, in response to combining the needs of the public, the environment and the timber industry. This process enables the forest managers to:

• plan ahead and consider the consequences and costs of various actions
• enhance the environmental values
• create confidence in the timber market by producing a steady and sustainable supply
• resolve any problems that have been identified regarding conflicting activities
• create diversity in age structure, species and habitats where this is most beneficial
• work our operational methods to suit desired management objectives.

The forest has a diverse range of nationally rare plants and animals. Some areas are already designated as SSSIs for their wildlife interest and much of the forest is within the Brecks Proposed Protection Area due to high levels of two breeding bird species, the woodlark and the nightjar . These two heathland birds breed on areas recently cleared and replanted and their numbers have rapidly increased over the last 20 years. The forest also has many scheduled and unscheduled ancient monument from round barrows to flint mines and Roman villas. All of these interests will be taken into account during the forest design plan process.

But this is not the only, or indeed the main, driver behind the redesign. "The majority of the forest was planted in the 20s, 30s and 40s. It is all growing at the same rate and consequently is now mature or approaching maturity, which does not provide for diversity," explains Mr Lyon. "We wish to restructure that, to provide trees of different heights, at different stages, to provide a variety of landscape views and many different habitats to cater for the conservation and ensure timber production is available at an even rate each year."

Introducing more broadleaf varieties is not always appropriate; many types would not thrive in the sandy soils of the area. More broadleaf trees will be planted where the habitat is suitable - the idea is to provide a diversity of species.