Long term intentions

Woodland

The long term intention is to maintain the site as a predominantly wooded area, graduating from dense woodland cover on the lower slopes, to scattered trees and open grassland on the upper slopes. This graduation will provide a soft landscape edge between the main body of the woodland and the open grazing land on the hill top. It is anticipated that the site will remain as a mixed broadleaved woodland, with a large proportion of non native species (particularly sycamore). In any felling operations, the non natives will be discriminated against.

To maintain the woodland as an area of continuous tree cover, it is beneficial to increase the age diversity in the long term, as currently there is a high proportion (73%) of trees made up of 2 age classes (P1940s and P1970s). This will be done through a limited number of scattered small scale felling coupes (5 - 10 trees), every 10 years or so, concentrating on the lower slopes where the trees are more mature and in areas where existing natural regeneration is struggling under dense canopy. Protection from deer browsing will be necessary through use of tree shelters.

Any surviving ancient woodland remnants will be retained and restored by gradually reducing shade. Veteran trees will gradually be released by removing trees crowing them, and conifer blocks shading out specialist woodland ground flora will be gradually thinned.

To retain the scattered pattern of trees on the uppermost slopes of Wood Hill, it will be necessary to encourage the next generation of trees over the next few decades. Regeneration is currently very sparse on the upper slopes, and will be encouraged through deer control and, if necessary, other methods (e.g. limited scarification of dense ground cover, direct seeding, protection, rabbit control). Small numbers of new generations of trees will be encouraged every 50 years or so.

The plantation of sitka spruce in the north-west corner does not fit in with the landscape of scattered trees on the upper slopes, and the long term intention is to fell this block and convert back to open ground with scattered trees. There is no evidence of woodland before this plantation (no stumps, no woodland flora, no woodland on old maps). The best options would either be to fell and extract, (but this is likely to be very costly due to extraction difficulties), or thin to gradually open up, leaving felled trees to break down within the plantation before the next thinning.

Other options considered are clearfelling and leaving, or letting it grow old and blowing over with no management input - but both these will be extremely unsightly.

The area of open grassland on the upper slopes will be monitored to ensure at least 10 - 20% of the total area remains. This will be done by looking at aerial photos every 50 years. Deer browsing is helping to inhibit trees from regenerating, and it will be important to get the balance right between deer control to establish the next generation of trees over specific short timescales and allowing deer numbers to expand again to maintain grassland areas on the upper slopes.

The invasive rhododendron will continue to be controlled. Any surviving large bushes and continuing regrowth from old stumps will be chemically controlled and any new growth seeding in from adjacent land will be pulled out.

Public Access

The long term intention is to continue to offer the opportunity for low-key informal public access and small scale organised events through maintaining the existing path network. There are no plans to actively try to increase public use of the site, however, any opportunities to join in any joint access network projects will be considered.

It is intended also to make some minor improvements alongside the paths to introduce a bit more variety, and therefore to increase public enjoyment. Improvements proposed are: scalloping path edges to give a more varied experience; thinning in front of crags to make them more visible; and creating a small section of new path to avoid the very steep route east of Silver Glen (if a feasible route can be found)