County Wildife Site Criteria for Cornwall Appendices

LOCAL PARKLANDSGeneral DescriptionThe lowland wood-pastures and parkland PHT is the result of historic land management systems, andrepresents a vegetation structure rather than being a particular plant community. Typically thisstructure consists of large, open-grown or high forest trees (often pollards) at various densities, in amatrix of grazed grassland, heathland and/or woodland floras. These sites are frequently of nationalhistoric, cultural and landscape importance.The national PHT is restrictive in that there are seven attributes that can be used to create a scoretowards the habitat. These are listed below with the criteria for local parklands highlighted in bold. Old maps/records indicative of wood-pasture treatment. Change to: Old maps/recordsindicative of parkland. Old trees, particularly veteran trees. Large herbivores; particularly livestock. Tree/woodland structure showing impact of large herbivores Vegetation mosaic of open & woodland communities. Historical/archaeological features typical of wood-pastures. Oral evidence/tradition indicative of wood-pasture.The four attributes in bold will be used to score towards the local habitat.National ContextThere are no reliable statistics on the extent of the overall PHT resource, nor on historical andcurrent rates of loss or degradation of this type of habitat. The figure of 10-20 000 ha 'currently in aworking condition' given in the 'habitat statement' of the UK Biodiversity Steering Group report is thecurrent best estimate. Accordingly, it is impossible to give a figure for this kind of habitat.Cornwall ContextThere are about 500 ha of parklands in Cornwall. It is probable that somewhere between 150 and300 ha might qualify as the PHT, while the rest of them would be considered to be of localimportanceArea of PHT in Cornwall (ha): est 200-350Number of polygons: not known (nk)The habitat is: Fairly Rare to RareDistribution by Administrative DistrictDistrict P K CK R CN NC ΣNumber 1 nk nk nk nk nk nkArea (ha) 10 20 50 20 50 120 270Distribution by Natural AreaDistrict Pe Lz CKG BM Cu ΣNumber 1 0 nk nk nk nkArea (ha) 10 0 200 0 50 270For this habitat the threshold is 0.3 haAppendix 5 - Information Relating to Local Habitat Types.County Wildlife Sites Criteria