Ashdown Forest

A full description of the Forest heathland can be found in the SSSI Designation (Statutory Designations). However it is important to understand that the 1600 ha of Ashdown's heathland represents 3% of all lowland heathland in the UK. It is therefore an extremely important national conservation area and also very significant in European terms.

Heathland has been a by-product of the pastoral activities of the Commoners for hundreds of years. Their common right entitlement to firewood, litter (Bracken and Heather) and grazing (cattle and sheep) prevented afforestation, prevented bracken spread and favoured species that had some ‘competitive advantage’ under this regime. The decline of the farming Commoner since the Great War has led to an accelerating deterioration and dissaperance of the heathland. Woodland cover increased from less than 10% in 1947 to 40% in 2000.

Conservation work aims to restore the heathland in good condition, retaining all appropriate habitats, a range of age and height mosaics, and the full spectrum of flora and fauna.

The Forest area has always been grazed. In the ancient wildwood, grazing would have been by wild herbivores but in more recent times it was the Commoners’ stock plus deer and rabbits. Carried out in more or less traditional ways, with a small number of stock per hectare, grazing is the most cost-effective way of managing large heathland areas like Ashdown Forest.

Scrub is the precursor of woodland. Silver Birch is the main invasive woody species on the Forest and it can spread very rapidly due the production of huge numbers of wind-borne seeds. It is important to remove saplings as soon as possible, before the leaf litter enriches the soils, the shade destroys the heather and the roots break up the podsols which favour heathland. Oak can also invade rapidly, particularly from a woodland edge.

Bracken was the cornerstone of the Commoners’ farming system, providing a bedding material for wintering stock. Enriched with manure, it was spread on the in-bye land in the spring to maintain fertility. Bracken was cut by the Commoners strictly in the winter only, to avoid killing the plants. In modern times, bracken has begun to spread into heather stands and cutting takes place in the summer. Over 150 hectares of bracken are now mown, twice a year, to create a grassy heath habitat.

Commoners used heather for thatching, for putting in the bottom of hay stacks and for bedding. Today, heather is forage harvested to introduce an age and height structure to even-aged heather stands, which encourages a diversity of invertebrates.

Burning was used by Commoners to reduce scrub and rejuvenate grass areas. The re-growth provides succulent “early-bite” for sheep and cattle. When the Commoners were at their peak numbers, there would have been nothing to burn and so deliberate fires were a recent event. Today, the Rangers sometimes use burning on a very small scale for the same reasons but the conditions for a fire are stringently controlled.