TREES AND WOODLANDS

The Vision

Woodlands play a vital role in the county as important wildlife habitats and landscape features. The priority task is to conserve the surviving sites and ensure that they are appropriately managed. It is also important to increase the area of woodland cover in the county. There is an increasing awareness about the importance of very old ("Veteran") trees, and the role that they play in wooded habitats, especially parklands. All such habitats are now increasingly rare and efforts must be made to conserve such features.

The Habitats

There are a number of different wooded habitats in the county which support a varied and complex range of species. A number of the habitats are semi-natural whilst others have been planted by man quite recently.

Habitat Plans have been produced for the following wooded habitats

· Lowland Mixed Woodland

· Wet Woodlands

· Lowland Wood-Pasture and Parkland

· Urban Forest and Greenspace

General Actions

To implement the Habitat Plans and fulfil the Vision, the following actions will need to be taken:

· Promote the conservation management of Ancient Woodlands

· Encourage coppice management where appropriate

· Encourage measures to reduce deer damage to trees and plants

· Encourage the conservation management of woodland rides and glades

· Encourage, where appropriate, natural woodland processes in woodlands

· Encourage the use of native species of local stock for the creation of new woodlands

· Encourage the creation of flood plain woodlands

· Promote the natural regeneration of woodlands

· Encourage the retention of standing dead wood for bats, birds and other species

· Encourage the creation of additional dead wood habitats

· Promote the management of old pollards

· Encourage the conservation of Veteran Trees

· Encourage a proportion of hedgerow trees to be grown as standards

· Encourage the conservation management of old parklands

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