Restoration of broadleaved woodland under the 1985 Broadleaves Policy stimulates ground flora recovery at Shabbington Woods, southern England

Abstract

Forestry policy and practice changes during the 20 th Century led to major effects on the composition and structure of Shabbington Woods, southern England. Coppice-withstandards stands were clear-felled during the Second World War and replanted with conifer/conifer-broadleaved mixtures in which the conifer was dominant. Since 1985 broadleaves have been favoured. In 1983 the ground flora had been recorded in six plantation stands of different tree species and compared with three remnant broadleaved stands. Five 200m 2 quadrats were taken spread across each stand. The survey was repeated using the same methods in 2015 to assess changes. In addition, in 2015, single 200m 2 quadrats were taken in 21 other stands to put the re-recorded stands into a wider site context. In the nine re-recorded stands, six stands lost species (mean number of species per quadrat) between 1983 and 2015, only three stands gained them. Increases in species richness were associated with management (felling or thinning) or where stands had opened out through wind-throw. Species with higher Ellenberg light scores showed higher turnover than more shade-tolerant species. In stands recorded only in 2015 oak Quercus robur stands derived from formerly conifer-dominant crops, showed a similar richness and species profile to the remnant broadleaved stands. Specialist woodland plants did not appear to be adversely affected by this active management of the stands. The results indicate that in terms of the ground flora at this site the 1985 Broadleaves Policy achieved one of its aims of maintaining/restoring the special character of ancient woodland.

Spatial targeting of woodland creation can reduce the colonisation credit of woodland plants

“…It has been shown that traditional management techniques such as coppicing significantly increase the abundance and richness of woodland plant species in the understory (Barkham, 1992; Fuller & Warren, 1993; Kirby et al, 2017). Some of the woodlands of this study are too young to be coppiced, however, thinning to counteract the overshading of Salix viminalis could increase the biodiversity of ground flora by allowing a more diverse range of plants to compete with the ivy (Kirby & Thomas, 2017). The dominance of plants such as ivy, or the presence of trees which block out light may be a good milestone to assess this by.…”

Land-use legacies of twentieth-century forestry in the UK: a perspective

“…World War II, caused another devastating loss of standing timber, the brunt of which was carried by the former royal forests and privately owned forests, as most of the newly planted state owned conifer plantations were still too young to be of much use (Foot 2010). In Shabbington Woods in southern England, for instance, a remnant of the former royal forest of Bernwood, traditional broadleaved coppicewith-standards tree stands were clear-felled during the War and later replanted with mono-culture conifer or conifer-broadleaved mixtures in which the conifer was dominant (Kirby and Thomas 2017). The sudden visual effects of tree felling in many parts of the country were considerable (Foot 2010).…”