Woodlands

Habitats

Woodlands

Woodland is one of the most important habitats, supporting many species including plants, insects, mammals and birds, and providing a variety of benefits such as landscape, public amenity and timber production.

Following the end of the last ice age (about 12,000 years ago), Warwickshire became dominated by a fully natural woodland known as the ‘wildwood’.  However, it is thought that much of the wildwood in south and east Warwickshire (the Feldon and Avon Valley) was cleared by the end of the Romano-British period (c400 AD) and although clearance was slower in other parts of Warwickshire, the county, and particularly South Warwickshire, has one of the lowest coverages of woodland in England.

There are 9 woodland-dominated Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Stratford on Avon district including Snitterfield & Bearley Bushes, Whichford Wood and Wolford Wood & Old Covert.

There is considerable potential to improve the management of existing woodland, plant new woodland and use new planting to increase the connectivity between blocks of woodland.  This is outlined in the Warwickshire, Coventry and Solihull Local Biodiversity Action Plan – woodland & wet woodland.

Initiatives

Heart of England Forest

The Heart of England Forest is a charity helping to reverse centuries of woodland decline by creating and conserving a huge broadleaf forest for the benefit of the environment, wildlife and people. The mission is to create and conserve a thriving broadleaf Forest of 30,000 acres (half the size of Birmingham).  The Forest currently covers a mosaic of habitats across 9,000 acres of land in Warwickshire and Worcestershire, including 4,800 acres of new woodland and over 600 acres of mature and ancient woodland.