As part of the Woodland Trust’s work to restore ancient woodland sites, experts are to gather in Llanelwedd on 13 October to discuss some of the key challenges involved in restoring these woods, to exchange ideas on how best to do this and look at some successful case studies of restoration work. And everyone who is involved in ancient woodland restoration work, whether as a landowner, a practitioner or a policy maker, is invited.
With support from the Heritage Lottery Fund, The Woodland Trust (Coed Cadw) is already working to support and encourage the restoration of these threatened ancient woodland sites though its Ancient Woodland Restoration Project.
Ancient woodland makes up less than 5% of the land cover in Wales, these sites dates back at least 400 years. But over half, 34,000 ha, has been planted with non-native trees, mostly conifers. These sites, called Planation on Ancient Woodland Sites (PAWS), supress native flora due to the shade they cast and long term if they are not sensitively managed will cause the important features unique to ancient woodland to decline and disappear.
Laura Shewring, the Woodland Trust’s Ancient Woodland Restoration Manager for Wales explains the urgency of the task: “Many of these conifers woods have now reached maturity and are due to be harvested. If they are restocked with more conifers, our chance to restore these struggling ancient woodland sites will be lost. We want to gather informed views from the forestry sector to shape how we influence work on these sites and how we advise woodland owners to practically undertake work on their own sites.”
Download the agenda below, and book online by clicking here.