Woodlands

Woodlands and Forests Today

Each spring our ancient woods are places of light and colour as the spring flowers greet the sun. Together with the great forests, home of deer and veteran pollard trees, these are the more irreplaceable of all the semi-natural habitats. Shaped by centuries of sustainable management they are as important a part of our heritage as any historic building.

Between 1939 and 1973 one third of Essex's ancient woodland was destroyed by buildings, roads, agriculture or modern forestry. Although plantations of willows, poplars and conifers have brought variety to the landscape, they have done little for native wildlife. Today only 5.7% of Essex remains covered by woodland.

Nevertheless, what remains is uniquely rich and varied: ancient chestnut woods flanking the Stour; plant-rich ash-maple woods on the chalky clays; wet woods, home to alder and aspen; rare woodlands of lime; old coppices of twisted hornbeam; and the great forests - Epping and Hatfield - the latter the most complete deer forest in England.

Woodlands in the Community

Trees covered most of prehistoric Essex from the Thames in the south to the Stour in the north. All of the species we recognize today were present although lime was more abundant than it is now. Man-made clearings in this wildwood were apparent in Neolithic times, and by 500BC nearly half of it was felled. The Domesday survey in 1086, describes a countryside in which trees covered only 20% of the land, with most villages having their managed coppice. Between then and Magna Carta in 1216, the six great wooded forests of Essex were declared at royal behest.

For over a millenium wood was an essential part of everyday life: for fuel, fencing, in house building, sheep folds, tools, barrels, boats - the list is endless. Woodlands were a vital resource, managed with care and conservatism to ensure their continuity. Most were coppiced every 8 to 10 years, providing poles from which craftsmen could produce their products. From time to time larger trees were also felled to supply the timber framing for houses or wooden ships. Charcoal was a major woodland product, essential for smelting metal, but also used to fuel London hearths before cheap coal was readily available.

This century has seen a millenium of constant, stable use virtually cease. The advent and wider use of alternative fuels, metal, and plastics has supplanted a majority of the traditional wooden goods. Woodlands fell into neglect, silent except for the roar of the bulldozers which unforgivably grubbed out so many.

The Special Value of our Woodlands

Our truly ancient woodlands have a direct link to the prehistoric wildwood: the land on which they grow has never borne anything but woodland. Many of the rare and beautiful plants they contain such as herb paris, greater butterfly orchid, service tree, sweet woodruff and perhaps most special of all, the oxlip, grow only on these sites.

Woodmen unknowingly enhanced this already rich and diverse flora: their rotational coppicing, creating a mosaic of light and shade, young and old trees, encouraged the woodland species to flower in profusion every spring. In addition the few years of full sunlight allowed species less tolerant of shade to add their beauty and variety to these species-rich woodlands. The regular clearings created by woodmen mimicked those which occurred in the wildwood, enabling trees and shrubs to seed and grow without the need to plant, maintaining a unique genetic pool in each wood.

As the coppice shoots re-grow they provide home to many birds and animals: hazel coppice is renowned for nightingales and the now infrequent dormouse. Bush crickets and rare fritillary butterflies enjoy the sunny glades rich with flowers.

In contrast to the young wood of the coppices, our wooded forests contain pollarded trees many centuries old. Pollards were cut regularly to provide firewood, but at a height that grew new shoots beyond the bite of deer or cattle.

These trees are memorable, individual, their gnarled, encrusted faces chronicling the events that shaped them: the woodman's axe; rain, wind and ice; fungi permeating to their very heart. Home to numerous birds, countless invertebrates, and rare slow-growing lichens, these trees are precious and unique - like the woods and forests in which they grow.

Targets for 2000

To repair the damage of the last half-century and improve the woodlands of Essex, we must:

• Improve the protection of our existing ancient woodland and forest by both education and statutory means.
• Increase the area of broadleaf woodlands in the county by 18,000 hectares, increasing our wooded land to 1 0% of the total.
• Introduce appropriate management techniques to the ancient woods and forests to benefit their wildlife and ensure their continuity and variety.
• Increase the area of native willow, osier and alder woodlands in river valleys.
• Establish new pollards that will become special trees 300 years hence.
• Re-create the large woodlands of old Essex by extending existing areas of concentration such as Writtle and Thorndon.

Achieving the Woodland Aims

Right minded policies at national, county and individual levels are necessary to meet our strategic aims; they include:

• Ensuring the continuation of a strong national Forestry Authority that is committed to enhancing ancient woodlands, extending the use of native broadleaves, and sensitive to the environmental needs of the individual sites.
• Continuing existing Woodland Grant and Farm Woodland schemes but extending them to encourage the reinstatement of woodlands on marginal agricultural land taken out of production.
• Promoting both traditional and novel uses for wood to benefit the woodland economy. Recognizing coppice as a renewable resource with a beneficial environmental impact.
• Supporting capital investment in the development of processes designed to effectively utilize the existing resource.
• Encouraging the development of a national approach to the sale and marketing of small wood.
• Using all advisory bodies to encourage sound objectives in the management of woodlands, particularly ensuring that: careful positioning of new woodlands along old boundaries and between existing woodlands to increase their value and repair past fragmentation; appropriate native tree species are used; a varied structure is created; and that on occasion shrub areas be allowed to develop naturally.