North York Moors National Park
 

Discover The Place

Caring for the woodland

 

With over a fifth of the National Park wooded, the contribution that woodlands make to the special qualities of the area cannot be over estimated.

Native woods are often very prominent and valued landscape features because they have usually survived or developed on the land where farming is less economic such as steeper land on valley sides or along river corridors.

There are also extensive plantations, which can dominate whole landscapes, particularly in the south and west of the National Park.

How these areas are managed in the future is vital to the landscape of the Park but we are also beginning to understand how important woodland is for biodiversity on the landscape scale too. Developing a ‘forest habitat network’ based on native woodland and other semi-natural habitats is also vital to ensure the woodland ecosystem can function in the longer term.

Promoting management where woodlands can be improved is important and in some cases woods will not survive if they continue to be neglected. There is huge scope in the North York Moors to restore some of our lost woodland heritage as well by gradually bringing back the native trees to sites where they have been lost in the past.

Establishing new woodland needs to be carefully targeted and planned to maximize the benefits they can bring. New woods can buffer or link isolated or fragmented woods, and they can also complement other habitats such as river corridors, or moorland edges where bracken can be dominant and woodland and trees may have only recently been lost.

The National Park Authority promotes woodland objectives in a number of ways:

  • through advice and support to landowners and farmers interested in managing existing woods or creating new woods, particularly where conservation is a major objective
  • through provision of grants, and also support with grant applications
  • through awareness raising
  • by working closely with the Forestry Commission when they consult us on English Woodland Grant Scheme and felling licence applications. New applications are placed on the Forestry Commission's Public Register of New Planting and Felling which you can see by visiting the Forestry Commission website and comments may be made to them in the 4 week notification period.
  • by working with others to develop thinking on priorities and to consider new funding opportunities to support action.