Hazel Graves writes:
A large audience of visitors and guests was welcomed as usual by Chairman Nicola, who gave the notices regarding future events and invited the audience to contribute with sightings etc. Several members contributed sightings, and a number of items were on display on the table.
Dr Andy Lear was then introduced, a familiar face to many of the audience, some of whom had helped in the research for the Ancient Woodland Project. After leaving LRWT Andy moved to the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire (BCN) where he worked on updating the Ancient Woodland Inventory for those counties. LRWT at the time had no one on its staff to undertake the local inventory so Andy was seconded back to LRWT to perform the survey.
Andy explained that his talk would cover the origins of Ancient Woodland, which is designated as continuous since 1600 (when maps started to become reasonably accurate), how it has developed and how it is recognised.
He started by explaining British Woodland Prehistory, how woodland slowly returned to Britain following the Ice Age and the retreat of the ice about 10-12 thousand years ago, and the concept that climax vegetation existed for a very short period, if ever, as early man arrived and started clearing sometimes extensively for their lifestyle.
Woodlands which remained were managed by coppicing and pollarding to provide homestead goods. The function of Royal Forests was for hunting – not for providing wood. Further huge changes came with enclosures and eventually post second world war the Forestry Commission developed commercial forestry, often on the few remaining woodland sites, to prevent Britain being so dependent on imports in the case of future wars.
Beginning in 1981 with the Ancient Woodland Inventory, recognition of the need to find, map and protect what was left of Ancient Woodland emerged. Ancient Woodland is discovered by meticulous searching and comparison of ancient and current maps. Andy shared with us many of the delightful old maps that he had accessed. Confirmation is made by studying the flora and other lifeforms currently existing in woodlands. Recreation of ancient woodlands is difficult as many of the species don’t spread far very easily. Woodland indicator plants are often those that have poor resistance to grazing such as Bluebell, Wood Anemone and those shade-tolerant such as Wood Melilot and Herb Paris. Others are Barnacle Lichen (Thelotrema lepadinum), Lemon Slug (Malacolimax tenellus), Violet Click Beetle (Limoniscus violaceus) and Hazel Gloves Fungus (Hypocreopsis rhododendri), which are highly restricted to very specialised places. Plantations on Ancient Woodland Sites (PAWS) must have indicators of ancient woodland to qualify.
Such a large and important subject was of great interest to our audience many of whom have a keen interest in maintaining our current biodiversity. We are all looking forward to seeing the results when published on-line by DEFRA.
