Forest of Dean areas but the focus has been to capitalise on the scenery and to create jobs from tourist attractions and the leisure sector. Significant numbers of residents work outside the area, commuting to Gloucester, Cheltenham, Bristol, Newport and Cardiff. For hundreds of years, mining in the Forest of Dean Coalfield has been regulated through a system of freemining. This, and other forms of self-governance, coupled with the Forest's geographic isolation between the rivers Severn and Wye, has given rise to a strong sense of cultural identity in those from the area, who are collectively known as 'Foresters'. The ancient rights were
Dean Forest Act 1861 been agreed by the Forestry Commission to be obsolete, spent, unnecessary or superseded. In the case of any grant after the passing of the Dean Forest (Mines) Act 1904 of any gale to which that Act applies section 7 of the Dean Forest Act 1861 (which relates to the cesser and refixing of rents and royalties) has effect as though such number of years not exceeding sixty-three as may be specified in the grant were substituted for twenty-one years in that section. This section was repealed by section 1(4) of, and the Schedule to, the Wild Creatures and Forest Laws