Introduction to Managing Established Woodlands

Updated on the 18th of January 2025

Woodland management is like giving your trees a personal trainer—keeping them fit, productive, and ready to weather whatever nature throws their way. Whether you own a small patch of woodland or manage a sprawling estate, regular care is the secret to sustaining biodiversity, maintaining balance, and ensuring your woodland thrives for years to come. This guide will walk you through the practical steps needed to keep your woodland in tip-top shape.

Why woodland management is important

Woodland ecosystems are complex, with a delicate balance between trees, soil, water, and wildlife. Without active management, woodlands can become overgrown, vulnerable to disease, or ecologically unbalanced. By applying good woodland management practices, you can help your woodland thrive, whether your goals are conservation, timber production, or recreational use.

Key reasons why woodland management is important include:

• Maintaining ecological health: Regular management helps sustain the woodland’s biodiversity by promoting a diverse mix of species and habitats.
• Preventing disease and overgrowth: Left unmanaged, woodlands can become overcrowded, making trees more susceptible to diseases and pests.
• Enhancing resilience: Managed woodlands are more resilient to external pressures such as climate change, invasive species, and extreme weather events.
• Maximising productivity: With careful planning, woodlands can provide economic benefits, such as timber and firewood, while still supporting ecological and recreational goals.

Creating and updating a woodland management plan

A well-structured woodland management plan is the foundation of long-term woodland care. It helps you define the goals for your woodland, map out management actions, and ensure that your woodland remains productive, biodiverse, and resilient over time. A management plan should be tailored to the specific characteristics of your woodland and regularly updated as the woodland matures or as your goals evolve.

Key elements of a woodland management plan:

• Site assessment: Begin by assessing the current state of your woodland. This includes identifying tree species, age structure, soil conditions, and existing wildlife habitats. Knowing what you have will guide your management decisions.
• Management goals: Clearly define your objectives. Whether you're managing the woodland for timber production, wildlife conservation, or public recreation, your plan should reflect these priorities. You may have multiple goals, so consider how they can complement each other.
• Action plan: Based on your goals, outline specific actions you will take. This might include thinning to reduce overcrowding, planting to encourage biodiversity, or creating paths for public access. Actions should be scheduled over time, with regular reviews to adjust as needed.
• Monitoring and evaluation: Ongoing monitoring is essential to ensure your management activities are achieving the desired outcomes. Regularly check tree health, biodiversity, and the overall condition of the woodland, and update the plan based on your findings.

Update: The Woodland Management Plan (WMP) Grant provides funding for creating UK Forestry Standard-compliant 10-year plans. This grant supports sustainable practices and long-term woodland health. Applications can be submitted year-round, subject to budget availability.

Key goals of woodland management

Every woodland is unique, and the goals of woodland management can vary depending on the landowner’s priorities. Some of the most common goals include sustainability, timber production, recreation, and ecological balance. It’s important to find a balance between these objectives to maintain a healthy and productive woodland.

Sustainability

Sustainable woodland management ensures that the ecosystem remains intact and productive over the long term. This includes maintaining soil health, protecting water resources, and ensuring that tree harvesting or other resource extraction activities don’t deplete the woodland's natural capital.

• Sustainable harvesting practices: Selective cutting or continuous cover forestry allows for timber extraction while preserving the woodland’s ecological structure.
• Biodiversity conservation: Promoting a mix of tree species, understorey plants, and wildlife habitats creates a resilient woodland that can adapt to environmental changes.

Timber production

For many woodland owners, timber production is a primary goal. Woodland management for timber requires careful planning to ensure that tree harvesting is sustainable and does not harm the overall health of the woodland.

• Thinning: Reduces competition among trees and allows the healthiest specimens to grow. It can also provide an early income from smaller trees while allowing larger, more valuable trees to mature.
• Rotational harvesting: Ensures that trees are harvested at different times, maintaining a continuous supply of timber without clear-cutting large areas, which can damage the ecosystem.

Recreation

Woodlands are valuable spaces for recreation, offering opportunities for walking, wildlife watching, and outdoor education. When managing woodlands for recreation, it's important to balance public access with conservation goals.

• Trail maintenance: Prevent erosion and ensure visitor safety by designing paths to minimise environmental impact and avoid sensitive habitats.
• Public education: Informational signage or guided tours can enhance the visitor experience while promoting conservation awareness.

Ecological balance

Achieving ecological balance is one of the most important goals of woodland management. This involves managing the woodland to support a wide variety of species, from trees and plants to birds, mammals, and insects.

• Maintaining diversity: Encouraging a range of tree species and ages creates a more resilient ecosystem that can better withstand diseases, pests, and climate change.
• Deadwood management: Leaving deadwood in the woodland promotes biodiversity by providing habitats for fungi, insects, and birds. Deadwood also plays a key role in nutrient cycling and helps support a diverse range of species.

Grants and funding for woodland management

Tree Health Pilot Scheme (THP)

• A lifeline for trees facing unwanted guests like ash dieback or oak processionary moth. This grant covers felling, restocking with disease-resistant species, and biosecurity measures—because trees deserve a proper defence strategy too!

Managing woodlands can feel like herding squirrels—challenging but rewarding! Thankfully, there are some excellent grant schemes to help you keep those trees standing tall and thriving.

Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT)

• Ideal for tackling complex tasks like removing invasive species, pest control, or carving out paths without leaving your woodland looking like a hedgehog’s bad hair day.
• Provides funding for complex woodland management tasks such as invasive species removal, pest control, and creating access paths for sustainable management.

Update: Starting January 2025, the CSHT introduces a phased pre-application process. This approach supports applicants in preparing documents like maps, management plans, and site assessments, improving the likelihood of approval.

Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI)

• Think of this as an annual health check for your woodland—with payments for monitoring tree health, biosecurity measures, and boosting biodiversity so your trees can breathe easy.
• Offers annual payments for activities like monitoring tree health, implementing biosecurity measures, and maintaining biodiversity in woodlands.

Woodland Management Plan Grant (WMP)

• Provides funding for creating detailed, long-term plans that align with the UK Forestry Standard, ensuring sustainability and productivity. Perfect for those who like their woodlands thriving and their paperwork tidy.
• Funding for creating detailed, long-term plans that align with the UK Forestry Standard, ensuring sustainability and productivity.

Partnering with AskGrant

Managing established woodlands effectively requires a clear plan, consistent monitoring, and access to the right funding. At AskGrant, we simplify the process by providing expert guidance and tools to help you succeed.

• Plan with GrantBudgeter: Use our GrantBudgeter tool to estimate costs, structure your project finances, and create a compelling budget.
• Tailored Support: Let us guide you through grant applications and help you create a sustainable woodland management plan.

Ready to optimise your woodland’s potential? Partner with AskGrant today and ensure your woodlands thrive for generations to come.

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