Vollskogen: Swamp, farmland, relic, recreation area, or new residential area?

In recent weeks, Extinction Rebellion has held several protests against the demolition of Vollskogen. The housing project has been discussed by both students and the municipality's other residents. The developer wants 290 new homes, the students none. So, what will happen in Vollskogen?

Journalist: Simen Walbækken Tangen

Translator: Angeluiqe Reine

Phptographer: Nathalie Genevieve Bjørneby

XR is taking action

Extinction Rebellion gathered in the square of Ås city center with large posters and demanded that the politicians should not expand Vollskogen when the Main Committee for Technology and Planning met on March 2nd.

On Sunday March 6th, XR joined a memorable public meeting in Vollskogen. While there was a bonfire with food and drinks in Økohagen, smaller groups were sent into the forest. Here they were greeted by forest spirits, interactive performance art, and music.

The plan proposal is ready

The result from the Main Committee for Technology and Planning meeting on March 2nd was that the plan proposal will reduce the number of homes from 290 to 200 homes. It was the Center Party that proposed this and gained a majority. They also believe that it is important to have more homes near NMBU as the region's largest workplace. Martin Løken (MDG), who is the leader of the Main Committee, wanted the plan proposal to be rejected. MDG's suggestion to reject the plan proposal remained, but it was voted down.

The next step in the process will be for the municipal council to have a consultation on the plan proposal and possibly approve the development plans. The next municipal board meeting in Ås municipality is at Solberg school on March 23rd at 18:00.

Vollskogen from the Stone Age to today

For information, Vollskogen is east of Pentagon and is sometimes called Pentagon Forest by students. The forest marks the watershed between the Oslo Fjord and Sonsbukta. Between 9500 years ago and 8400 years ago, Vollskogen was part of the Ås-inlet and later the Ås-isthmus. This was an alternative sea route for Drøbak inlet for the Stone Age people before it also became a wildlife feature in the landscape. Flint has been found in Vollskogen from this time and the place was another hub for our distant ancestors.

The forest is not considered worthy of preservation and can be described as a production forest with high quality. NMBU leased parts of Vollskogen from 1989 to 2003.

Ås municipality has now received approval for housing development in Vollskogen, after long rounds of mediation with the county governor. The owners of the forest have gotten the property development company Opsahl Gruppen AS and Rambøll AS to develop housing plans for the area.

The students are dissatisfied

The students at NMBU have expressed dissatisfaction about development. Many people use Vollskogen as a recreational area. They are also afraid that the student city Pentagon will receive even more noise complaints from the new neighbors and that traffic on Pentagonveien will increase. During a digital public meeting a year ago, a grocery store and beautiful benches at Eika were proposed to give the students a kind of compensation.

On October 11, 2021, the Student Parliament at NMBU adopted the resolution “Yes to the conservation of Vollskogen”. In the resolution, the Student Parliament also believes that NMBU should say no to development and work to ensure that Ås municipality does not say yes to development. So far, NMBU has not taken a stand on the matter.

Great debate, little rejection from the municipality

In recent weeks, much has been written about Vollskogen in Ås Newspaper (Ås Avis). Ås Landbrukslag has asked the municipality for a better impact assessment of the cultivability of Vollskogen. NIBIO's maps show that almost the entire Vollskogen is arable. They believe that topsoil must be used instead of being degraded. Biologist and botanist Anders Often tells Ås Newspaper that Vollskogen is a swamp that is being drained, and therefore believes that the development project is idiotic with an increasingly wet climate.

Jan Dante in Opsahl Gruppen AS has stated to Ås Newspaper that the criticism of the development project is untenable. He believes that they need 290 homes to be able to get a utilization rate of 28%, which means that joint measures can be realized, making municipal infrastructure cheaper per unit. The Red party’s Magnus Nickelsen criticizes in Ås Newspaper that Dante greenwashes a demolition of the forest.