By: Mark Fisher

Mark Fisher — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 11:44:31 +0000

I just wonder why it is assumed that managed woodland and the opportunitic species it attracts is necessarily the natural ideal. Thus the conclusion of greater shade as a detractor just seems to be aping that of the English Nature Research Report 653 – “Long-term ecological change in British woodlands (1971-2001)). That study noted it was a value judgement that favoured open habitat species in woodlands. It also questioned whether it is feasible to return to the high levels of species richness shown in their baseline survey for plants if this was a consequence of a one-off set of circumstances around the specific management of woodland in the mid-twentieth century? They say the same argument might also apply to butterflies and birds in woodland, as it does to plants. I would say that the argument also applies to this study of Dorset woodland! If the trend is to a homogenisation then this surely is a reflection that it is woodland species that are occupying woodland spaces. England has one of the lowest woodland covers in Europe, and consequently one of the smallest amounts of woodland interior habitat. To impose open habitat species sets on such extant woodland through “management” seems onerous, and does not admit other realities for our wild nature.

Comments on: British Woodlands More Homogenous than in Past

By: Mark Fisher