Surrey is the most wooded county in England, at 22.4% woodland cover equating to 37,564 hectares. The Surrey Hills AONB, with 40%, makes up roughly half of this, at 16,270 hectares. However, our woodlands are still in a vulnerable position.
The Rio Summit of 1992 prompted the UK Biodiversity Action Plan, which lists Ancient Woodland of particular concern, and results from the England Biodiversity Strategy show a worrying trend for the decline of wildflowers. The survey reports a decline of 34% in Ancient Semi Natural Woodland plants between 1990 and 2007.
There are various reasons behind this decline. Since we in Britain exterminated our large natural predators, such as the wolf, the natural balance of the woodland ecosystems began to brake down. This contributed to the ongoing trend of unnaturally high deer numbers, which in recent years has been supplemented by introduced species, such as Fallow, Sika and Muntjac. The deer population in lowland Britain is now said to be at its highest level since the Norman Conquest. Such large, undisturbed population’s heavy browsing restricts the growth of young trees and damages woodland flora. The Deer Society and Government figures advise an annual cull in the U.K. of 250,000 per annum, as well as protecting particularly vulnerable areas using fencing.
Coupled with this, traditional management, very often coppice with standards, has largely died out over the last 100 years, due to the decline in the rural economy and the widespread use of man-made materials replacing woodland products. “The number of people employed in forestry, as in agriculture as a whole, has continued to decline, unsurprisingly after years of the UK timber market being undercut by cheaper foreign imports and the relentless increase in the cost and regulation of employment” (Woodland Management in the Lowlands, Peter Brown, 2011). Neglected coppice becomes overshadowed by the canopy and eventually dies, resulting in a simple woodland structure, with few shrubs or canopy gaps, much to the detriment of birds, insects, and wildflowers.
Therefore, Woodland Management is required, not only for the growing of high quality, sustainable timber, but to fulfil the role of a naturally functioning forest for the benefit of wildlife. Our work has been testament to this, with Nightingales returning to woodlands, where they have not been heard for a generation.
The current growing demand for wood fuel now makes much of the Ancient Semi Natural Woodland of commercial interest, often with yields of up to 150 tonnes per hectare, on a 16 to 25 year sustainable rotation of coppiced timber species, not including hazel.
