County Wildife Site Criteria for Cornwall Appendices

LOCAL ANCIENT WOODLANDSGeneral DescriptionAncient woodlands are those woodlands which have had a continuous history of tree cover since atleast 1600 and have only been cleared for underwood or timber production.The Cornwall inventory of Ancient Woodlands has always been described as provisional. This isbecause some of the woodlands that were mapped in that report have never been properly assessed.The intention was to map all ancient woodland over 2 ha, but there were inevitably a few that wereoverlooked. The majority of these were likely to be small. It follows that there are probably anumber of small ancient woodlands that are missing from the Inventory. Moreover, there will also beancient woodlands with an area of less than 2 ha that could be considered to be of significant natureconservation and historical importance.The Local Ancient Woodlands will include these overlooked woodlands. Accordingly, in addition tothe woodlands in the Inventory, we will consider all woodlands that can be shown to be ancient andsome part of them is still ancient semi-natural.This local habitat will also include some woodlands that have been replanted on ancient woodlandsites that had previously been cleared. Ancient woodlands are important for their ground flora, notjust for the trees. Accordingly, even when a woodland has been cleared and replanted, there areoften rides - and perhaps clearings - that retain the original ancient ground flora. These woodlandstoo will be considered for selection.National ContextThere are thought to be about 300 000 ha of ancient semi-natural woodlands, each with an area of atleast 2 ha, in Britain. There is no knowledge of what number of ancient woodlands have been missedfrom the Inventory, nor of the number of smaller ancient woodlands that are excluded because theyare too small.Cornwall ContextThere are about 3100 of ancient semi-natural woodland in Cornwall. The majority of the sites aresmall, about 70% of them being less than 10 ha in area and about half of them are 5 ha or less. Someof the blocks are only about 1 ha in area, being part of a larger woodland block.Area of LHT in Cornwall (ha): estimated (est) 50 (small sites*)Number of polygons: not known (nk)**The area of the replanted woodlands is not relevant. The number of sites is, but there is no idea ofthat number, though very few are expected to qualify.The habitat is: Very RareDistribution by Administrative DistrictDistrict P K CK R CN NC ΣNumber 0 nk nk nk nk nk nkArea (ha)est.0 5 6 4 17 18 50Distribution by Natural AreaDistrict Pe Lz CKG BM Cu ΣNumber 0 nk nk nk nk nkArea (ha)est.0 1 41 2 6 50For this habitat we will take all areasAppendix 5 - Information Relating to Local Habitat Types.County Wildlife Sites Criteria