There is also a huge amount of secondary woodland in RCT, woodlands of more recent origin (as an approximation less than 100 years in age and often much younger). Ash, sycamore and silver birch are typical in such woodlands, but in RCT oak is also often an early coloniser of open ground. Hawthorn and blackthorn are frequent associates and, on wetter ground, alder, downy birch and willows. Tree colonisation depends on soil types, location, and proximity of seed source. The colonisation of new woodlands has done much to inform our understanding of the natural processes of woodland development. While ash often colonises under oak, and extreme (and some might say pointless) interventions are required to promote oak germination, it is apparent that in the right conditions (which seem to include open ground), oak will very successfully appear. While oak is often loath to regenerate in oak woods, abandoned fields adjacent to oak woodlands can successfully regenerate as pioneer oak woodlands. The concept of oak as a pioneer species is perhaps something to ponder.

 

The powers of natural woodland regeneration and colonisation are extraordinarily strong in RCT. Open ground left unmanaged for just a few seasons will rapidly regenerate into open scrub and young woodland from nearby hedgerows and old woodland. From a biodiversity perspective this natural tree regeneration is hugely preferable to the prescribed and artificial process of tree planting, with its attendant carbon-foot print, plastic tubes and potential for importation and spread of tree disease. Unfortunately, natural tree colonisation and regeneration does not currently ‘count’ in national woodland creation targets. This exclusion of the natural means of increasing woodland cover is clearly an aberration, which needs to be remedied. If not, there is a significant risk that the pressures to meet national woodland cover increases disaggregated to an RCT level will require the targeting of sites with semi-natural habitat cover, which is important for other priority habitats and species.