Across England, thousands of acres of silent plantations are haunted by ghosts. Once quintessentially English woodland, alive with butterflies and bluebells, wood anemones and wild garlic, these woodlands have become ghost woods, suffocating beneath the dark, evergreen canopy of conifer tree farms. 

This our first blog about our ‘Ghost Woods’, these lost, precious ancient woodlands. In the series we trace the history of our ancient woodlands, how they came to be destroyed, why we cannot afford to lose them forever, and the hope we have for bringing them back. 

Read on for the history of our ghost woods, find out more about what Wild Card is doing to bring them back, and how you can get involved! 

What are ancient woodlands?

Our ancient woodlands used to be a diverse mix of native trees at every stage of their life cycles, as well as a vast array of woodland flowers and plants. Heartbreakingly, these woodlands were cut down over the 20th century and replaced with timber plantations, often in the form of dark and silent rows of conifers. The rich woodland floor is now carpeted with dead needles and little else. 

Ancient woodlands are immeasurably precious, and have the highest biodiversity of any land-based habitat! Part of the reason for this is how long they have been around for. Ancient woodland sites are defined as land that has been continuously wooded since 1600 – meaning the importance of the woodland comes not from individual trees (although these are important too!) but from the whole ecosystem. As tree-planting wasn’t something we really did before 1600, many of our ancient woodlands are in fact likely to be far older than 400 years old, with some stretching back thousands of years. 

These woodlands are living forms of archaeology; landscapes that our ancestors have lived and worked in for generations, and are the guardians of our natural and cultural heritage.

Those bluebell carpeted woods that are the darlings of our Spring? Ancient Woodland. 

Shakespeare’s ‘pleached bowers, where honeysuckles ripened’? Ancient Woodland. 

Sherwood Forest’s mighty oaks that sheltered Robin Hood and his Merry Men? Ancient Woodland. 

Why did our ancient woodlands become ghost woods?

The devastation of our ancient woodland has happened in various stages. During the industrial revolution, many trees were felled and by 1900 only 5% of England was forested. What was left was then decimated during WWI due to the need for timber products to fuel the war. 

This destruction continued in between the wars, but reached a new level after WWII. Fearing timber shortages if England if another war broke out, thousands of acres of ancient woodland were felled and replaced with regimented lines of quick growing, economical conifers. Devastatingly, by the end of the 1980s almost 40% of our ancient woodlands had been replaced with silent lines of timber plantations.

Why are Forestry England important and what are they doing to restore our Ghost Woods?

Forestry England was at the forefront of supplying timber for the nation. Born in 1919 with the express purpose of planting new woods after WWI, by 1934 Forestry England controlled over 316,000 acres of conifer plantation. Much of this was planted on the sites of lost ancient woodland.

Fortunately, attitudes are now changing. After the World Wars securing timber production was a matter of national priority, but today, in a world framed by collapsing biodiversity and accelerating climate change, we know that protecting our most precious habitats is the most important thing we can be doing. 

The creation of Forestry England’s Wilding Team and Core Wilding Areas, as well as on-going commitment to Ghost Woods restoration, suggest that Forestry England is moving in the right direction. However, their sluggish pace of change leaves many of the ancient woodland ghosts (including the vital seedbank in the soil) at risk of disappearing completely, long before Forestry England get around to beginning the restoration process.

More concerningly, Forestry England has no strict public duty for nature beyond loose Environmental Improvement Plan targets. If the political or economic winds change, there is nothing stopping Forestry England returning to the dark old days of replacing our national heritage with platoons of conifers.

Currently Forestry England’s restoration is guided by the government commitment laid out in the Keepers of Time reports. These are the public facing statements of policy which set out aims for all Ghost Woods, including those in private hands. However, as the guardians of our public forests Forestry England have a responsibility to show leadership – instead they are lagging behind. 

In 2005 the first Keepers of Time report set 2020 as the target for “The majority of Plantations on Ancient Woodlands (PAWS) either being improved or under gradual restoration to native woodland.” However, this target was missed.

The updated version of Keepers of Time from 2022 sets a commitment for all owners of ancient woodlands to restore or start restoring “the majority of plantations on ancient woodland sites to native woodland by 2030”. Like the 2020 target, there is almost no chance that Forestry England will meet this target. 

Despite these two public targets, Forestry England has also set an internal policy which they are following to measure their restoration progress; to improve the ‘semi-natural score’ of all Ghost Woods by one by 2044. 

What are semi-natural scores?

Semi-natural scores are a way to assess the ‘native-ness’ of the woodland, as many Ghost Woods are a mixture of non-native conifer plantations and native species (or native species which aren’t native to that particular site, such as beech trees). 

The scores go from one to four (one being the highest) and are based on the percentage of tree species in a woodland

• 1 = > 80% Native

• 2 = 50% – 80% Native

• 3 = 20% – 50% Native

• 4= < 20% Native

Semi-natural scores offer a more substantial way of measuring progress than aims to simply ‘restore PAWS’. But, given the internal, slightly vague nature of this commitment, how can the public hold them to account on this?

That’s why Wild Card are campaigning for a concrete, public commitment to Bring Back Our Ghost Woods.