The King's Forest was protected for centuries by people dedicated to its preservation. At first they were mere private gamekeepers who were seeing their functions becoming increasingly comprehensive, possibly, in Forest Guards (in 1605 there were about 24), but only in 1824 that was created the career together with the General Administration of the Woods. It was in 1856 that started wearing uniforms and was replaced later in 1905.
Uniforms of the Forest Guards in 1856 (Source: opinhaldorei.blogspot.pt)
The guards job was to monitor the material that came out of the woods as well as to carry out sowing, cleaning, impose fines, measurements of fuelwood and timber and administrative work.
Their wages were too low, however their situation was improving until the last years of the 20th century. Normally they came from distant lands and were in a system of rotation in every two years to discourage acts of favoritism. To the guards, and their families, was assigned a house and a small plot of land that they grew in the spare time. Some managed to have a barn for cattle and a henhouse for the chickens. Almost essential was the presence of a well for water.
In 1980 the Forest Guards were a group of four masters and 29 guards. In 2006, the guards were eventually integrated into the Service of Protection of Nature and Environment of the National Republican Guard. With their disappearance, faded also the memory of conviviality between the people of the villages around the forest with the Forest Guards, the gates closed while the oxcarts were monitored, their protective presence in the prevention of fires. We are sure that the professionals that replaced the ones before came with the same zeal for our forest.