Ashdown Forest

Ashdown Forest looks different to its immediate surroundings because of its distinctive land-use over the last nine centuries. Firstly, it was originally created and managed for the hunting of deer and, secondly, it has been, and still is, common land. The Forest has escaped the plough and cultivation but has nonetheless been heavily exploited for grazing and military training and for its resources of wood, bracken, stone and iron.

The two main ecological habitats that make up Ashdown Forest are heathland and woodland, each of which provides a very different environments for animals to live in. Both of these environments are discussed in more detail below.

Heathland is defined by characteristics such as vegetation dominated by plants of the Ericaceae (heathers) family, dwarf shrub communities, few trees, sandy acidic soils and at altitudes below three hundred metres. Heathland is a rare and threatened habitat, only about 15% of heathland that existed in 1800 remains.

Ashdown Forest's 1,620 hectares of heathland represent some three percent of the UK total. It is extremely important to note that heathland is a "plagioclimax" vegetation type. This simply means that it originated through, and is maintained by some human activity. If that activity should cease then the plagioclimax vegetation will progress towards a true climax vegetation. In the case of most of Great Britain this would be mixed deciduous woodland.

In the case of Ashdown Forest this human intervention has historically taken the form of livestock grazing which is now in decline, especically since World War 2 and is resulting in the encroachment of woodland onto many parts of the heathland.

But why is heathland so important? What are some of the plant and animal species that make up this environment? Use the link below to find out more.

"Ancient Woodland" is defined as areas which were wooded in the first reliable maps that were drawn up in the seventeenth century and have remained wooded ever since. As Ashdown Forest has been common land since the 14th century, and the woodland has been exploited by the Lord of the Manor and the Commoners there is no ancient woodland. The area that was enclosed in the original pale in 1693 does have some ancient woodland but this is now private land.

From a purely ecological point of view, much of the Forest woodland has relatively value. Note that this is not taking into account any recreational, amenity or landscape value of these woods which may be considerable. The successional birch woods are not only very common but from a biodiversity or rarity point of view are unimportant. The Forest does however have other woodland which is very important for wildlife.

The hazel coppice woods support dormouse and a range of wild flowers. Chestnut coppice stools, by virtue of their longevity and continuity, support a range of Bryophytes (possibly the earlist group of land dwelling plants) and other interesting higher plants.

The majority of the Forest woodland is of a type known as oak/bracken/bramble which would be the climax community if there was no interference from Man. This is undesireable for several reasons:

1. Management techniques such as coppicing and pollarding help to provide good quality habitats for nationally rare species such as the Common Dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius).

2. Coppiced woodland has some outstanding landscape features such as beech pollards which require continued work.

3. Coppiced woodland can provide an income as a reult of good conservation work.

4. The 1987 storm demonstrated that unmanaged woods can cost huge amounts to maintain safe public access.