County Wildife Site Criteria for Cornwall Appendices

The DefinitionAverageReliability of PHTInterpretationExpected to be: AverageClassification Survey Data. More detail is given in Heath andOakes (1990) Woodland Surveys in South West England using theNational Vegetation Classification.CommentThe definition of this LHT does not cause major problems inthis county because there appears to be no differences in theresult if either Peterken Stand Type or NVC communities areused.ExplanationThere are two methods that may be reliably used to identify thisLHT: Peterken Stand Type and NVC communities. Phase 1 istoo broad and other classifications do not exist within Cornwall,except where they have been derived from Peterken or NVC.There is only one Peterken Stand Type (3D) in Cornwall thatleads to this LHT. Unlike the case with some other LHTwoodlands, the NVC and the Peterken systems do not appearto conflict.When using NVC communities we are usually considering W8or W9 woodlands. In Cornwall there are no known W9woodlands and the majority of the W8 woodlands are of subcommunityW8e. It appears reasonable to consider W8ewoodlands as this LHT. In practice however, we have usedPeterken Stand Type for this LHT, in just the same way that wehave for the PHT woodlands.We have adopted the approach that we would only usePeterken Stand Types. This is for two main reasons. Firstly, themajority of the woodland studies in Cornwall have used thePeterken Stand Type system while there are relatively fewwoodlands that have been assigned to a NVC community.Secondly, it is relatively easy to derive a Peterken Stand Typefrom simple fieldwork whereas it is extremely time consumingto try to derive an NVC community from limited species lists.Moreover, the results may be open to question.Overall AssessmentExpected to be: AverageOur method should give unbiased results that are transparent.That is, the allocation to LHT follows a clear and simple methodwhere the LHT usually shows a direct correspondence to theoriginal classification.CommentsThe map should give a reasonable picture of the distribution ofthis LHT in Cornwall.Appendix 5 - Information Relating to Local Habitat Types.County Wildlife Sites Criteria