WOODLAND MANAGEMENT IN THE LOWER WYE VALLEY 4 INTRODUCTION 6 WOODLAND CHARACTERISTICS How much woodland Ancient woodland Ownership Types of semi-natural woodland Designations 12 ORIGINS AND PAST MANAGEMENT Outline of woodland history in the lower Wye Valley Wood pastures Coppices Broadleaved high forest Conifer plantations Recent restorations Secondary woodland Woodland composition Farmland trees 18 WOODLAND ARCHAEOLOGY Ancient earthworks Industrial relicts Tracks in woods Farming remains in woods Earthworks of tradtional woodland use and management Recreation Earthworks and natural features as information about woodland history 21 NATURAL FEATURES Mixed deciduous woodland Other habitats Geological and geomorphological features 24 FLORA AND FAUNA The two faces of Wye Valley woodlands: dense woodlands at Symonda Yat contrasted with scatt ered woodland around Capler Camp Habitats Ground vegetation and common plants Woodland plants Bryophytes, lichens and fungi Woodland fauna Special protection for species 31 TRENDS AND THREATS Deer Grey squirrels Wild boar Chemicals Climate change 36 MANAGEMENT OPPORTUNITIES AND OPTIONS General policy Sustainability Key features of woodland management Specialised aspects New woodland Trees outside woodland Conclusion 42 NOTES, REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING 43 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND FURTHER INFORMATION 44 REFERENCE MAP Compiled by George Peterken • Design by Tony Eggar Published by (?) • © Wye Valley AONB 2007 2 3 over the last two hundred years. Whereas Gilpin because the social, economic, biological and policy INTRODUCTION and the other Wye tourists appreciated, like us, the context in which management choices are made dramatic ruins of Goodrich and Chepstow castles is constantly changing, detailed prescriptions can ‘The banks [of the lower Wye] for the most part rise abruptly from and the abbey at Tintern, they also revelled in only be temporary. the edge of the water, and are clothed with forests, or broken into cliff s. the bustle and spectacle of the iron works at New In some places they approach so near, that the river occupies the whole Weir and Tintern. Likewise, they did not see the This booklet describes the main features of the intermediate space, and nothing is seen but wood, rocks, and water; tall and apparently natural woods that line much woods; summarises how their present condition in others, they alternately recede, and the eye catches an occasional of the valley today, but accepted the numerous developed; identifi es the features of importance; glimpse of hamlets, ruins, and detached buildings, partly seated on the patches of felled woodland and welcomed the characterises present trends and threats; and margins of the stream, and partly scatt ered in the rising grounds. The distance and perspective that the smoke rising reviews opportunities and options for management. general character of the scenery, however, is wildness and solitude; from numerous charcoal-burners’ hearths lent to The focus is on the woodlands within the current and if we except the populous district of Monmouth, no river perhaps the rugged scenery all around. boundary of the Wye Valley AONB and the Wye fl ows for so long a course through well cultivated country, the banks of Valley woodlands Special Area of Conservation which exhibit so few habitations’. William Coxe, 1801 (1.1). However, as the opening quotatation (SAC) at its core, but mention is made of woods illustrates, some Wye tourists were clearly struck nearby where these are clearly part of the same by the wildness of the scenery in general and the natural group as the woods of the AONB itself. For well over two centuries, visitors to the Lower woods in particular, and this ‘natural’ perspective The general aim is to provide a review of current Wye Valley have been struck by the amount and contributed more to modern sensibilities than conditions and understandings that will be of diversity of the woodlands. From Goodrich south Gilpin’s acceptance of industry and development enduring value to those who must balance the to Chepstow, both banks of the gorge are covered in - even to the extent of following Coxe in excluding various needs and pressures that determine how mature mixtures of oak, beech, ash, lime and many Monmouth from the Area of Outstanding Natural we manage these woods. other tree species, whilst even in the less-wooded Beauty (AONB). Today, we appreciate the woods landscape of southern Herefordshire visitors are for their apparent naturalness and require that rarely out of sight of Haugh Wood and Fownhope forestry operations impinge as litt le as practicable Park on the Woolhope Dome, or the steep woods on the view, or at least respect the natural clinging to the slopes over the bends of the Wye at confi guration of the land. Capler and Ballingham. Even on the plateaux to the th east and the west woodland remains prominent, Since the mid-19 century the woods have especially on the fringes of the Forest of Dean and Tintern Abbey from Devil’s Pulpit also been appreciated for their wildlife and around Trellech. natural features. In particular, the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club frequently searched the This landscape fi rst became famous for its woods for interesting plants, animals and fungi, and investigated the geology of its rocks and land natural beauty and a focus for early tourism in the Redbrook from Highbury second half of the Eighteenth century, along with forms. This tradition has since developed into Snowdonia, the Lake District and the Highlands of the modern appreciation of biodiversity and the Scotland. Visitors joined the Wye Tour, a two-day concern for wildlife conservation, that generates journey by boat from Ross to Chepstow, during nature reserves, designations and special measures which they cast appreciative eyes over the rugged for Horseshoe bats, dormice, fritillary butt erfl ies scenery, scrambled over the ruins of Goodrich castle and other rare and vulnerable species that depend and Tintern Abbey, climbed to viewpoints from the on the woods for their survival. Indeed, the core Kymin and the Wyndcliff , and wrote their diaries. woods of the Lower Wye Valley are now regarded Those with an artistic bent also produced sketches as one of the most important concentrations of and watercolours according to picturesque rules Gilpin sketch of Wye Gorge ancient, semi-natural woodland in Britain. drawn up by that famous arbiter of taste, William Gilpin, the vicar of Boldre in the New Forest, who The woods, however, are not just objects to look at, places to visit and enjoy, and habitats for wildlife. took the Tour in 1770 and twelve years later published Staunton his “Observations on the River Wye …” (1.2). For millennia they yielded fi rewood, fencing, building materials and other woodland products, Gilpin, like modern visitors, regarded the woods and even in today’s depressed market for home- as key elements in the landscape. He thought the grown timber, they remain sources of hardwood key ‘circumstances’ of the Wye Valley scenery were and soft wood. Woodland managers must therefore ‘the loft y banks of the river and its mazy course’, satisfy many diff erent needs, some of which work and identifi ed its four ‘ornaments’ as the ground together, but others of which require choices to (i.e., land forms), rocks, woods and buildings, and be made. The outcome in any particular wood is this largely sums up the modern appreciation of generally a compromise that tries to balance one ‘natural beauty’. Closer reading, however, soon need against another, neither a nature reserve nor a reveals that att itudes have changed substantially Wyndcliff from Lover’s Leap, G E Madeley c. 1840 timber factory, but something in between. Inevitably, Woodshuts, near Prior’s Frome 4 5 Symonds Yat Rock have a grandstand view of one WOODLAND CHARACTERISTICS example at Coppet Hill, where a small plantation and extensive scrub woodlands now occupy much How much woodland? woodlands. In fact, nearly 40% of all woodland is of what until recently was open common pasture. either dominated by conifers or has a substantial fraction of conifers mixed with broadleaves. Woodland occupies about 26% of all land Ancient woodland Broom Spurge Laurel within the AONB, i.e. it extends to about 8440 ha Conifers were far less prominent immediately of woodland of all types, including scrub and aft er the Second World War, when the woods were Although the patt ern of Wye Valley woodland has parkland. For comparison the national average is mainly mixtures of oaks and other native deciduous always changed in detail, the broad distribution of 11%. Its distribution is far from even: the Gorge trees, but they were extensively planted thereaft er woodland has remained astonishingly unchanged. and Highmeadow (where woodland occupies 48% and reached a peak in the 1980s, since when many Search back in old maps, ancient estate documents, of all land) (2.1), Trellech Plateau (34%) and the have been replaced by broadleaves. parish archives, the surviving land management core of the Woolhope Dome are all particularly records of the medieval monasteries, and much Holly Wayfaring Tree well-wooded, whereas the Herefordshire lowlands Some woods have else, and one fi nds more or less the same woods, (14%) and the plateau between the Gorge and the been destroyed, such oft en with the same name, running back through Dean (13%) have less, and the Wye fl oodplain as the core of Bolstone history until the records peter out. above Goodrich has very litt le indeed. In addition, Wood, which was the extensive Buckholt Woods come down to the cleared for agriculture, In fact, an unusually high proportion of the Wye at Monmouth, but lie outside the AONB. and the portions of the Coppet Hill AONB woodlands are ancient, i.e., the woods have former Highmeadow existed in some form continuously since at least estate woods near Scowles that have vanished Large-leaved Lime Wild Service THE EXTENT OF WOODLAND IN THE LOWER 1600, and in many cases may well have existed into Stowfi eld limestone quarry.