COST Action E 52 - vTI - Bund.de

Fig. 5: 18th century pollard or bundle-planted beech – south Scotland
Natural England, Countryside Council for Wales and Scottish Natural Heritage, who have powers of
regular inspection and monitoring, enforcement and also grant-in-aid allocations.
Outside the natural range of beech, beech woodland sites would not be eligible for SSSI/SAC status, as
they are regarded as “long-established plantations” rather than “ancient semi-natural woodlands”. In
some acid upland oak-birch woodlands, planted beech is regarded as an invasive introduced species,
potentially threatening to the primary conservation interest. In this it is often considered together
with Acer pseudoplatanus and Rhododendron ponticum, neither of which is native to the British Isles.
This applies to several prominent woodland complexes in Wales, northern England and Scotland.
Here, efforts are made to manually remove young regenerating beech seedlings and saplings, but
mature and veteran beech trees are often permitted to remain for their inherent landscape and
deadwood invertebrate values.
maNaGemeNT oF beech reProducTIve maTerIaL
WIThIN brITaIN
Great Britain has not previously operated a formal system of genetic reserves or genetic conservation
units within existing woodland, as it was considered that the system of Sites of Special Scientific
Interest (SSSI’s), described earlier, provide for effective conservation of genetic diversity along with
other components of biodiversity (landscape, structure, species). In recent years the concept of
formal genetic conservation reserves has been re-evaluated but no decision to proceed with a novel
system of designations has been implemented to date.
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