Woodland

Woodland covers nearly 27% of all land within the Wye Valley AONB (compared to the national average of 11%). However it is very unevenly distributed - in the Lower Wye Gorge and Highmeadow, woodland cover is 48%, making the Wye Valley the most wooded protected landscape in Britain.

The Lower Wye Valley 's high quality native woodlands, especially ash, beech and yew woods, have been identified as some of the best examples of ravine woodlands remaining throughout Europe. Designated as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) under the European Community Habitats Directive, they also form part of a Europe wide network of high quality conservation sites called Natura 2000.

Ravine woodlands occur on nutrient-rich soils found at the foot of slopes and valleys in areas of limestone geology. Semi-natural woodland is abundant and virtually continuous along 18 miles of the Wye gorge within the Wye Valley AONB. Ash, beech and yew dominated ravine woodland occurs within an intimate mix of other native woodland types, including small leaved lime and oak.

As such the Wye Valley is one of the most important areas for woodland conservation in the United Kingdom. Nationally important populations of species such as greater and lesser horseshoe bats, dormouse, white admiral butterfly, Tintern spurge and narrow leaved bittercress all occur within the Wye gorge. The woodland at Little Doward supports the nationally rare tree whitebeam and the nationally scarce fingered sedge.

However, the survival of these woods are threated by the decline of traditional woodland management, like coppicing, and especially by overgrazing by wild fallow deer. With a population conservatively estimated at more than 1,200 in 2006, the deer eat young saplings, preventing all re-growth in the woods.

Woodland Management

Most ancient woods have been managed for most of their history by coppicing, which means they have been cut down repeatedly and allowed to grow up again from the stumps. Today, coppicing on an industrial scale, to feed the iron works and limestone kilns, has largely died out, although it increasingly continues in wildlife reserves and some Forestry Commission woodlands. Signs of former coppicing are easy to find in the AONB: the multi-stemmed trees grown from coppice stools and the rich variety of trees and shrubs that were supported by the coppice system.

From the 1960's modern forestry has based itself on plantations of softwood (larch or spruce) trees grown from seed of the same age and species. These are eventually clear-felled and the ground is replanted, which allows foresters to select which species to grow. Although now changing, modern forestry has differed fundamentally from traditional woodland management in that it can control the composition of the forest.

It seems likely that plantation forestry first appeared in the Wye Valley in the 18th century, but remained small-scale until the later 19th century. It was only in the 1960s that ancient coppices were clear-cut, poisoned and planted with spruce, Douglas fir and other conifers on a large intensive scale. Until that time the Wye Gorge was largely free of conifer plantations.

Today, the distinct contrast between traditional management and modern forestry has been broken down. Considerable efforts have been made to create management systems based on native tree species. Foresters in the Wye Valley and the Forest of Dean have been at the forefront of these pioneering techniques, and are slowly working towards a multi-purpose form of forestry.