Читать книгу A Book of Britain: The Lore, Landscape and Heritage of a Treasured Countryside - Johnny Scott - Страница 46

Although landlords with an interest in hunting or shooting preserved their woodlands for game cover, the overall damage to small broad-leafed woods, copses and spinneys through afforestation and agricultural reclamations inspired Kenneth Watkins, a retired farmer in Devon, to start the Woodland Trust in 1972, with the aim of preventing further loss of ancient woodland.

REMARKABLY, THERE ARE STILL OVER 22,000 SITES OF ANCIENT AND SEMI-NATURAL WOODLAND IN ENGLAND, AROUND 14,570 IN SCOTLAND, 850 IN NORTHERN IRELAND AND OVER 100 FOR WALES. ONLY 3,000 SQUARE KILOMETRES OF ANCIENT SEMI-NATURAL WOODLAND SURVIVE IN BRITAIN – LESS THAN 20 PER CENT OF THE TOTAL WOODED AREA.

The early 1970s saw the beginning of conservation awareness among the general public, and by the end of the decade donations to the Trust had enabled them to acquire woodland across England. In 1980, they obtained Coed Lletywalter, a 38-hectare ancient woodland site in Wales, and in 1984, Balmacaan Wood in Scotland, overlooking the banks of Loch Ness. In 1996, they began working in Northern Ireland and by 2009 the Trust was involved in the conservation management of around 13,000 hectares of woodland. Conservation soon became part of the political agenda, and the example set by the Woodland Trust was picked up by the Nature Conservancy Council, the government department responsible for designating and managing National Nature Reserves and other nature conservation areas in Britain, between 1973 and 1991.

During the 1980s and 1990s the Nature Conservancy Council and its successors, which in 2009 were Natural England, Scottish Natural Heritage, the Countryside Council for Wales and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, compiled inventories of ancient woodland sites in their respective regions, with the Woodland Trust providing the information for Northern Ireland. Remarkably, there are still over 22,000 sites of ancient and semi-natural woodland in England, around 14,570 in Scotland, 850 in Northern Ireland and over 100 for Wales. Only 3,000 square kilometres of ancient semi-natural woodland survive in Britain – less than 20 per cent of the total wooded area. More than eight out of ten ancient woodland sites in England and Wales are less than 200,000 square metres in area, only 500 exceed one square kilometre and a mere 14 are larger than three. This is a fraction of what there once was, but a great deal more than any other European country, and what we have, mainly in the remains of old Royal Forests, chases and the parkland of great estates, is now fiercely protected.

Nor are they all only in rural settings; the London Borough of Haringey contains no less than five ancient woods. Highgate Wood, Queen’s Wood, Coldfall Wood, Bluebell Wood and North Wood were once part of the great Forest of Essex, and during the medieval period, the hunting estate of the Bishops of London. Here, between Muswell Hill and East Finchley, eight kilometres from St Paul’s Cathedral, are 70 hectares of original pedunculate and sessile oak, hornbeam, beech and holly woods with the occasional wild service tree. There are several other ancient woodlands in the Greater London area: Dulwich and Sydenham Hill Woods, Epping Forest North, Lesnes Abbey and Bostall Woods, Ruislip Woods and Poors Field.