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Jul 21, 2020 · Dead and decaying wood is one of any woodland's most important microhabitats. Learn more about why we need more of it, as well as the rare and endangered beetles, colourful fungi and other threatened wildlife that relies on it.
- The Benefits of Trees
Trees shelter livestock from our increasingly wild weather...
- The Benefits of Trees
Nov 4, 2022 · Protecting and managing ancient woodlands, while expanding and connecting nature networks with new native woodlands, is critical and beneficial for all living things. Read more about the ...
Sep 12, 2024 · These days, our ancient woodlands cover only 2.5% of the UK, often with nonnative conifers taking their place. Many of our most iconic trees, including oak and maple, are now under threat, with agriculture, changes in weather patterns and inappropriate development being among the main contributors.
- Matt Huggins
- The Wildwood
- Our Ancient Trees and Woodlands
- Woodlands of All Kinds Contribute to Nature Recovery
- Taking Action For Nature
- Take Inspiration from Nature
- Resilience to Future Change
- Hedgerow Heroes
- Engine Room For Nature Recovery
The wildwood used to cover around three quarters of our islands, either as dense woodland or a more open wooded landscape, grazed by roe deer and wild horses, with huge ancient trees and a rich biodiversity in the woodlands and glades. By the end of the first world war, our woodland cover had shrunk to below 5% and – although we have made great str...
Our ancient woodlands are the jewels in the crown of our remaining networks for nature. They are teeming with wildlife – rich irreplaceable communities of often rare species which have developed over centuries and found their last refuge here. But our ancient woodlands are fragmented, increasingly small and disconnected from each other. Our ancient...
Our wildlife doesn’t have centuries to wait for the woodlands we are creating today to develop long-established ecosystems they can thrive in. So, we need to create woodlands of all kinds now – allowing some woods to expand gradually and naturally, cycling through bramble and scrub, rich in butterflies, bats and birds, until oaks and beech punch th...
In the meantime one of the most practical actions we can take is to plant trees now and create connected wooded habitat throughout our gardens, parks, road verges and farms. One of the most memorable moments of my life was revisiting, with my teenage sons, an oak woodland, created on an old landfill site by a mix of planting and natural colonisatio...
It's not always easy to choose what, where or how to plant. Usually, it is best to take your inspiration from nature. What is growing naturally on or near your land already? Where are the richest areas for wildflowers, where do the primroses grow on the hedgebanks, and where are the bluebells that tell you of a ghost woodland? Or the call of the cu...
As temperatures soar and wind speeds accelerate year on year, our homes, our land and our livelihoods are coming under more and more pressure. Floods threaten livestock and crops, and strip soil from the fields, while drought and wildfires become more frequent. Sustainable land use, both farming and forestry, not only provides our food and timber, ...
I can’t finish without mention of the hedges that run quietly through the countryside, overlooked and over pruned. They are the ‘Clark Kent’ of the nature recovery world. The oldest hedges provide a wildlife habitat and seed source like no other running all over the countryside, with 500,000km estimated to be in the UK. In no time at all, they can ...
All woodlands can deliver for nature, with connected networks of ancient and native woodland and other wildlife-rich habitats creating an ‘engine room’ driving nature recovery throughout the landscape, the more sustainably farmed and forested the better. We can all play our part in helping to piece together the jigsaw of nature recovery. Creating w...
- Climate change. Trees don’t just mitigate carbon, removing it from the atmosphere, they also sequester it – absorbing carbon dioxide during photosynthesis and then locking it up for centuries.
- Biodiversity. Climate change isn’t the only crisis we’re facing. We’re also living through a biodiversity crisis. Moths, birds, bats, dormice, butterflies, fungi – they all depend on woods, trees and hedges to feed, breed and thrive.
- Health and wellbeing. Trees boost our physical and mental health in so many ways. As well as keeping our atmosphere rich in oxygen, they filter pollutants from the air, shade our streets when it’s hot and even improve our immunity.
- Food production. Trees and farming go hand in hand. Trees shelter livestock from our increasingly wild weather and offer them shady spots for respite from heatwaves.
A carefully planned and managed woodland ofers a wide range of benefits beyond supporting biodiversity. Trees can support health and well-being, improve air quality, ofer shade for crops and...
Nov 4, 2022 · Find out how you can protect, restore and expand existing woodland habitats, home to a wealth of animal and plant species, to support nature’s recovery at a transformative scale.
