Objective 1

The character and quality of the region’s environmental resources better understood and conserved, protected and enhanced by a landscape scale approach to woodland management, tree planting and woodland creation.

Trees and woodlands are an intrinsic element of many of our most important and valued landscapes and habitats. However our region has suffered widespread, long term damage to the health and diversity of its natural environment and the pressures of conflicting land use, development and post war agricultural and forestry practices have had a major impact on many of our trees, woodlands and on other habitats and species.

Ancient woodlands and veteran trees are amongst our most valuable wildlife features, supporting many species of conservation concern. Never the less, they continue to face many threats from ecological isolation to climate change.

In parts of the region, woodland has been created on sites that had supported other habitats such as lowland heath, which have become increasingly rare and threatened. Despite the region’s low level of woodland cover, it is therefore important to recognise the need for removal or restructuring of some woodland to allow the re-establishment of valuable non woodland and open habitats where this is sustainable at a landscape scale.

The role of trees and woodlands in the landscape, ecology and history of each part of the region is distinctive and not all landscapes or natural areas are characterised by the presence of woodland cover. Landscape, ecological and historic character assessments are therefore an increasingly important tool to inform sub regional targets for new woodland creation and tree planting.

Regional targets for the restoration and creation of woodland habitat will need to be bold and should be based on a long term vision which goes beyond the life span of current regional strategic planning.

Objective 2

The ancient woodlands, veteran trees and other historic features such as parklands and wood pasture identified, protected, and sustainably managed.

Around half of our ancient woodland sites currently support commercial plantations, mainly of non native conifers. Many of these sites retain features and characteristics of native woodland that are lying dormant and that can be progressively restored. However, as time passes these features become more faint and, in many cases, it is in the woods where there seems least to save that there may be the greatest urgency to act.

Many ancient woodland, wood pasture and parkland sites contain important historic and archaeological features, from burial mounds to wood banks, and can provide them with a high degree of protection from damage or disturbance. They may also contain veteran trees which, in contrast, may be under considerable pressure because of the competition of surrounding vegetation. Even where only fallen trees and stumps remain, they may be of immense ecological importance supporting whole communities of plants and animals that are absent from surrounding woodland.

Little is known about many of these sites and features, particularly in terms of their condition or management requirements. The provisional inventory of parkland and wood pasture for the region lists three hundred and fourteen known sites covering over thirty two thousand hectares, a significant proportion of the national resource. However, very few of these sites have been surveyed in detail.

The Ancient Tree Forum and the Woodland Trust are developing a database of ancient and veteran trees because so little is known about their status or distribution and in

2000/01 Forest Enterprise undertook a major desk and field survey of it’s estate to identify ancient woodland sites and features. Further research and survey initiatives and

the systematic collection and analysis of data at a regional or sub regional scale are essential to the protection and maintenance of our historic woodland resources.

The re-connection of isolated fragments of semi-natural habitat and the increase in size of core woodland areas will create more ecologically functional wooded landscapes and habitat networks. These will be better able to withstand external environmental pressures from land use and climate change and thus ensure their continued contribution to our regional biodiversity, landscape character, and cultural heritage.

The protection, restoration and improvement of ancient woodlands and planted ancient woodland sites at a landscape scale is essential for the delivery of biodiversity action plan targets for woodland and associated habitats and species.