Rewild the Ghost Woods
We live with ghosts.
All across England, lost beneath neat, uniform timber plantations, lie the remains of some of our oldest living ecosystems. These are the “Ghost Woods” – once thriving ancient woodlands felled in the 20th century and now smothered by monoculture plantations. These forests should be alive with birdsong, fungi and wildflowers, but instead they’ve been turned into dark and gloomy tree farms.
Wild Card wants to change this.
Forestry England manages our public forest estate – it is their job to protect and restore our woods for us, the public. But they currently receive no funding for this vital work despite private landowners being paid for restoration on their land out of the public purse.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has an opportunity to save our ancient woodlands for future generations. The seedbank is lying dormant ready to regrow, but it won’t survive another 60 year timber cycle. The time to act is now.
We’re calling on DEFRA to commit to fund Ghost Woods restoration, turning back time on these centuries-old woodlands now buried under plantations.
WHERE HAVE OUR GHOST WOODS GONE?
The situation today is dire.
Just 1.6% of England is true ancient woodland.
Another 370,000 acres of former ancient woodland known as PAWS (Plantations on Ancient Woodland Sites) have been replaced by timber plantations.
Forestry England controls a massive 105,000 acres of these lost woodlands but they’re not doing enough to bring them back. That’s bigger than the Isle of Wight!
Monoculture plantations may grow wood, but they annihilate the rich biodiversity of ancient woodland; they damage soil, suppress wildlife, and silence the landscape. These aren’t forests, they’re crops.
BRING BACK THE GHOST WOODS!
We want to revive the Ghost Woods to bring back thriving native woodlands where nature, people, and local communities all can benefit. If public restoration work was properly funded Forestry England could:
- Restore nature and revive biodiversity across thousands of acres of public land
- Create sustainable, green jobs in communities that need them most
- Support better quality, locally produced timber through mixed woodlands and thoughtful management
- Inspire a generation by becoming leaders in the rewilding revolution!
Many of these gloomy plantations are nearing felling age now. This is a once-in-a-generation chance to do things differently. But if Forestry England re-plants timber crops as before, we’ll lose what little is left.
Instead, we’re demanding a bold step: restore these landscapes and let nature lead.
This is public land. Let’s use it for the public good.
Will you email Mary Creagh MP to ask her to stand up for our ancient woodlands?
Mary Creagh, the Minister for Nature, is tasked with spending £1 billion on our woods and trees, but she risks prioritising headline-grabbing tree planting over complex and vital ancient woodland restoration.
We need to give her a public mandate to make the right decision to protect our oldest woods.
It only takes 2 minutes to send her an email but could help save these woodlands for centuries to come.
From our blog
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Record-breaking slugs say slime is up on woodland revival
On the 19th of May, Wild Card assembled the largest ever gathering of people dressed as slugs to call on the government to deliver on its promise to restore the nation’s ‘ghost woods’ (ancient woodlands buried beneath timber plantations) before they disappear for good.
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Rewilding Species of the Month: Slugs
When choosing a rewilding species of the month, many species will stand out as clear options: the trophic cascading of the majestic eagle, the engineering prowess of the brilliant beaver, the splendid carbon sequestering seagrass. Few would consider the much-maligned slug. Yet this is exactly why slugs need to be chosen. In rewilding the UK,…
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Rewilding Species of the Month: Common Ivy
Ivy is a controversial plant that gets a whole lot of people reaching for the secateurs to butcher the green monster. In the UK, where Common Ivy is a native and therefore non-invasive species, this attitude can be symbolic of humanity’s need for control over nature or it may be symbolic of our misunderstanding of…
