The proposed privatisation of England's woods sounds easy enough. You put an ad in the papers, invite offers and wait for the money to come in, right?

No. As both the Thatcher and Major governments found 20-odd years ago, selling forests and woodlands raises passions, inflames local communities and is legally and financially complex. Trees are a strategic national asset which need to be managed over decades. Businesses want to maximise profits quickly and access to woodland is now a major recreational and health concern.

Last time, the Ramblers and conservationists backed by the industry eventually wore the government down until it quietly dropped the proposal. This time, there seems to be less opposition in principle, but more questions are raised. With the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) facing cuts of roughly 33%, local government funding to be reduced by 28%, and reports that councils are considering reducing their rights of way budgets by 50%, it seems pretty clear that access guarantees will be key. Back in 1992 the great Barbara Young, then head of the RSPB and later head of the Environment Agency, concluded: "No alternative exists that guarantees success."

Yesterday afternoon Green MP Caroline Lucas fired the first volley of questions in the House of Commons and environment minister Jim Paice gave some bland answers. Then the Ramblers demanded reassurances from Defra.

Help for everyone comes in the form of a timely new book by David Foot, a forestry comissioner from 1986-1999. Foot looks at the history of forests in Britain over the last 100 years and devotes eight pages to why the last Tory government failed to sell off more than a few woods.

So here – in no particular order – are 13 questions that the environment secretary, Caroline Spelman, and the Forestry Commission might like to address. They are distilled from Foot's book, the Ramblers, Caroline Lucas and others concerned enough about the sale to have written to the Guardian in the last few days.

If you want to add your own questions – or answers – please post them below.

1. Will the Forestry Commission itself decide which woods are to be sold. If not, who will?

2. How will the taxpayer benefit?

3. Will charities and conservation groups be allowed to buy woods by negotiation, or will it be a straight competition?

4. Will employment be guaranteed to former commission workers in socially fragile areas?

5. How will the government ensure that the forests are not simply asset-stripped?

6. Will the government guarantee that no sale or transfer is completed until the buyer has committed to preserving and maintaining access?

7. What effect will the sale have on biomass energy, paper and other companies who need to be able to guarantee supplies of wood?

8. Will the forests be sold on the open market ? 9. Where access is currently not secured in law, will this be remedied through the Countryside and Rights of Way Act?

10. How will public access be guaranteed?

11. What guarantees can the government give that conservation will be practised or woods will stay in sympathetic ownership?

12. Will conservation bodies be given privileged opportunity to buy the woods?

13. Will the government still have to pay out to whoever takes over the forests to ensure that the commission's conservation and recreation policies are maintained?

14. How much revenue-earning potential will the sell-off leave the commission?