Britain's Ancient Forests

Article by Stephen Philips

"It was not called the Old Forest without reason, for it was indeed ancient, a survivor of vast forgotten woods; and in it there lived yet, ageing no quicker than the hills, the fathers of the fathers of trees, remembering times when they were lords." The Lord of the Rings. J.R.R. Tolkien.

Without the activities of humans almost all of Britain would be woodland of one kind or another. Perhaps for this reason, that woodland represents the fullest expression of the land beneath our feet, so many of us are drawn to the woods. In the woods we can immerse all our senses - we experience the woods first hand by sight, sound, smell, touch, often by taste and most importantly always on at least some small level intuitively. When describing the woods around us though we often seem to prioritise the visual and the present moment in their history. In early twenty first century Britain this often leads to the categorising of woodland as either coniferous or broadleaved. My experience is that this is often also seen as a rough and ready reckoner for the 'value' of any given woodland on many levels, both from a conservation point of view and spiritually.

I'm hoping to convince you to look past seeing your local woods as either broadleaved or coniferous, and try to persuade you to see their potential value in a different way. If you look through the dark, straight rows of conifers with seemingly sterile carpets of needles beneath them, often there may be the odd old perhaps slowly dying native, broadleaved tree. This almost certainly represents a hotspot of biodiversity; the fungi it lives symbiotically with, other forms of fungi slowly rotting its deadwood, the plants living on the ground in the relative brightness of its less shading canopy of leaves and the many different invertebrates living on its leaves, branches and roots.

If you look further you may find the trunks of long dead native broadleaved trees either standing or lying on the ground again providing habitats for specialised fungi and invertebrates. Along the edges of the tracks and paths through the wood where more light penetrates to the ground, populations of plants specific to woodland may grow. All these features could be clues that the wood is a special place- that despite the almost overwhelming mask of young planted conifers the wood has been given to wear, it may yet be an Ancient Woodland.

What then is Ancient Woodland? Well in Britain woodland can at its very essence exist in one of three ways; Wildwood, Secondary and Ancient woodland. This classification is based not on the trees currently dominant in a wood, but on its history and all that that entails culturally, ecologically and I think perhaps spiritually too.

Wildwood.

This is wholly natural woodland made up only of "native" species i.e. those species which made it back to Britain after the last Ice age, before we were cut off from continental Europe by the rising sea. Wildwood is the woodland that formed as a result of the interaction of these native species with the rock beneath them and the weather above. It is the woodland that would exist were it not for the use of woodland by people. For much of lowland England and Wales it was not oak woodland as many people expect but woodland probably dominated by Lime. In Britain woodland has been managed to favour oak for millennia as it is by far the most useful tree to humans; decay resistant wood for building, hot but slow burning wood for fuel, acorns as food for pigs, tannins to preserve skins and make leather etc. Wildwood was woodland in no part shaped by human 'management' to provide for their needs but shaped by itself. It is probable that no true wildwood remains today in Britain. It did survive into historical times though, perhaps in parts of what became the Forest of Dean into as late as the fifteenth century and in Scotland areas around Loch Maire into the early nineteenth century.

Secondary woodland.

This is woodland growing on land that has at one point been cleared of trees and used for agriculture of some kind. Not all secondary woodland in Britain has been planted though. In some areas, where for some reason in the past land stop being farmed, self-seeded woodland was quickly able to reclaim the land. Some of these woods are now several generations old - although almost all are to a lesser or greater extent managed.

The majority of secondary woodland though is planned and planted by man. From a conservation point of view the potential of this sort of woodland is defined by what trees were planted, and by what the land was used for before the trees were planted i.e. whether it was ever ploughed or fertilised. Most secondary woodland planted before the early twentieth century was broadleaved and these now semi-mature woods provide habitat for large numbers of fungi, plants and animals. However the vast majority of these are generalist species that are able to live successfully in a wide range of habitats i.e. hedgerows or scrub and often even in the open.

Specialists woodland species are only rarely found in secondary woodland, and without the presence of these woodland specialists some people argue that you don't have true woodland. If you view woodland as something more than just land with trees growing on it but as a complex community of interdependent species co-evolved over millennia then they have a point. In secondary coniferous woodland you are even less likely to find such communities.

Secondary planted woods whether coniferous or broadleaved have in common the fact that they were planted for some human purpose and whether to provide timber for cash or shelter for game or stock, the nature of their origin was at some point a human decision.

Ancient woodland

Ancient woodland has a surprisingly specific definition; in England and Wales it is woodland that is known to have existed since 1600 and in Scotland since 1750. This seemingly arbitrary point reflects when the first reliable maps i.e. tithe maps were produced and the fact that there is very little recorded planting of woodland before these dates. The inference is that woods known to exist at these dates can be expected to be much older perhaps more often than not having a direct connection back to the original wildwood.

The difference between wildwood and ancient woodland is defined by human activity. Ancient woodland has been used by human beings usually as high forest but also often as coppice. What sets it apart from secondary woodland is that it is on land that has always been woodland.

Ancient woodland contains the true woodland specialists and communities. Species interdependent on perhaps several other species for their survival. They are adapted only to the relatively stable conditions found within woods and are very poor colonisers of new areas. Many species of plant associated with ancient woodland reproduce almost exclusively vegetatively, not producing any easily dispersed seed. Wood anemones growing in the shade of the forest floor move perhaps less than six feet in a hundred years. Some specialist beetles might need a dead branch on a living tree of a certain diameter a certain distance above the forest floor for its larval grubs to live in (to provide the right moisture and temperature regime) and specific types of flower for the adult beetles to feed on at the correct time of year.

Many species require the rotting heartwood of very old large diameter trees, that may take centuries to form. Oak is widely known to support huge numbers of species, but these are centuries old oak full of dead wood in different stages and types of decay. Young oak planted on an old field have very little chance of ever hosting the high biodiversity often quoted for oak. To do so they will have to survive hundreds of years and be invaded by fungi that the ex-agricultural soil they are growing in could never support.

Compared to the communities supported by an ancient oak woodland a field full of newly planted oaks may always be little more than a field full of oaks albeit it one day bigger ones. Even where new woodland is planted directly adjacent to ancient woodland the rate of colonisation of many species into the new woodland has been astonishingly slow even for those species where it happens at all.

In the absence of any remaining wildwood then ancient woodland is the one place we can easily make the connection back to it on a tangible level. Almost certainly some of the plants, animals and fungi will be the descendants of the original wildwood. They will have some purpose and history that is all their own.

Ancient woodland though is a finite resource and however many new woods we plant today we won't ever get a single acre more. The good news is that under current legislation only very rarely do ancient woodlands get felled and grubbed out. The bad news is that approximately a third of what remains is slowly being smothered by conifers.

Between the 1930s and 1980s large areas of ancient woodland were felled and planted with conifers. This has had dire effects in many woods, over time destroying much of what made these places special. Fortunately recent research suggests that in almost all of these woods this destruction wasn't complete. The odd veteran ancient trees, plant communities and deadwood habitat that I earlier suggested you look for in the conifer woods around you, still hang on to a lesser or greater extent in the majority of these woods.

Time is not on their side though. As the years pass by the conifers grow taller and the shade they cast increases, killing the old broadleaves and smothering woodland plant communities. More than 80% of this conifer area will be ready for felling over the next 10-15 years. This will be no reprieve however but in many cases the final death blow for these communities, and the living connection of these woods back to the primal wildwood and the original Genus Loci or Spirit of Place will pass. When the conifers are felled and the light floods in, the remaining fragile plant communities of the forest floor will be smothered by quick growing coarse vegetation, and the long-shaded old broadleaved trees will struggle to cope with both the wind and instant increase in light and temperature.

If these woods are managed appropriately by carefully opening up suitable sized gaps in the conifers and gently manipulating the levels of light and exposure, it is entirely possible that many of these woodlands can recover to a large degree in time. The surviving trees can act as a seed source for a new canopy of trees, and at least some of the connection to the original wildwood could be saved on even the most unpromising of sites.

What can be done? Well the Woodland Trust is waking up to this situation in a big way producing lots of good literature to inform the general public. The Forestry Commission (F.C.)is lobbying government to try and secure funding to provide grants to help private owners manage their Ancient Woodland without causing further unnecessary damage. Ultimately as usual it comes down to money. Despite some recent suggestions by the Woodland Trust that managing these woods appropriately doesn't have to be more expensive it almost always is and this is going to be the biggest obstacle.

What can you do?

1/ Have a look at some of the suggested further reading at the end of this article.

2/ Look carefully at the conifer woods around you. If you spot any veteran broadleaved trees being smothered then try and contact those responsible for managing the site. If its a Forestry Commission wood then contact your local F.C. office and ask whether the wood is on an Ancient Woodland site. If it is then ask what their plan is for that wood and whether they would consider taking appropriate action to save the old broadleaves within it - and if not why not. If you don't get satisfaction then take it higher. All the contact numbers you may need can be found on their website.

3/ When joining or renewing your membership of the Woodland Trust let them know that as a supporter you would be happiest if in the short term they spend a little less money planting new woodland and more on restoring the many ancient woodland sites they own. I'm not suggesting that planting new woodland is a bad thing on the contrary it is very worthwhile, although perhaps we should try not to confuse planting trees to mop up greenhouse gasses with woodland conservation. Perhaps over the next ten years woodland conservation work should receive a little more of our attention as this is our last chance to save the heart of perhaps a third of our ancient woodland. Whether we plant our new woodlands today or in ten years time will not in most cases have made a great deal of difference one hundred years down the line, compared with the difference restoring our ancient woodland sites could.

4/ Come on a TDN Wildwood weekend and work hands on in an ancient woodland!

Further Reading

On the Woodland Trust website, http://www.woodland-trust.org.uk there's more information on the importance of and threat to ancient woodland:

A pdf file "Restoring plantations on ancient woodland sites"

Another pdf file: "Reclaiming our forgotten inheritance"

For contact information for your local Forestry Commission offices. http://www.forestry.gov.uk/ and go to the 'contact us' section

Informal Wildwood Weekends
Near Betws-y-Coed, North Wales

Based in a large ancient woodland overlooking the Conwy Valley (35minutes to Anglesey- 1hour from Chester) we offer time to connect with the land beneath us both spiritually and physically during informally organized weekends.

If you want to do some conservation work within an ancient woodland then please get in touch with me directly and we will organise a time that suits both of us. Different activities will be relevant for different times of the year and for all levels of physical fitness! Things you may wish to come and do could include;

The collection of Bluebell seed - for use in recently planted woods
Thinning very small trees to favour native species
Making bird boxes/ bat boxes and then putting them up
Planting trees
If you have any other ideas then please get in touch and we'll see what we can work out!

Cost : £10 (covering insurance and other basic costs)
FFI or to arrange a visit, contact Stephen on Francis897 [at] aol [dot] com