This lecture was presented as part of the International Seminar Series in Forest Conservation on the theme "Inventory and Monitoring Approaches in Forest Conservation: from Tree to Landscape Scale", 4-25 November 2016. The seminar series was organised as part of the Master of Forest Conservation Program, Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto, Canada.

1. Ancient pinewood restoration at Loch Arkaig, Scotland:
Combining conservation and timber inventories and monitoring
approaches to develop a sustainable forest plan.
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2. 2
• One of the leading UK conservation charities
• Protect ancient woodland and ancient trees in the landscape
• Restore ancient and valuable semi natural woodland
• Create more native woodland
• Act through land ownership and management, engaging in
partnerships with private and public sectors, and lobby government.
Woodland Trust…what do we do?

3. Ancient woodland…what is it?
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• Britain is a small island with millennia of deforestation behind us and intensive
interaction between man and forests…particularly when compared with Canada.
• Ancient woodland is native woodland that has been in existence since at least
the medieval period…often a lot longer but difficult to prove due to lack of
mapping and archive evidence.
• Definition results from it’s scarcity and our plantation based forestry
development over the last 500 years.
• Canadian equivalent would be old growth forests?
• Highest biodiversity value woodland due to the centuries/millennia of evolution
into a complex and irreplaceable ecosystem.
• These woodlands are also inextricably linked with our cultural heritage as a
nation, and contain many cultural remains from our previous connections.

4. Ancient woodland…what is it?
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5. Ancient woodland…what is the problem?
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• Millennia of deforestation accelerated over the last
500 years.
• Growth and expansion of plantation forestry since
the 19th century.
• Acute timber shortages in the two world wars
fuelled “woodland improvement”.
• Further acceleration with the advent of logging
mechanisation and herbicides in the 1950’s/60’s
• Many areas of ancient woodland were cleared or
converted to exotic coniferous plantation, or more
“productive” broadleaves.
• These plantations still contain valuable remnants of
the previous ecosystem to underpin ecological
restoration
• We are still losing these remnants and need to act
now to restore what we have left.

6. Arkaig restoration project
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Acquisition and restoration of two ancient woodlands on Loch Arkaig…
Coille a Ghiubhais and An t-Seann Frith
A 20 year, £4.5 M project to restore a significant area of Caledonian
pinewood

7. Coille a Ghiubhais (the Pine Forest)
An t-Seann Fhrith (the Old Deer Forest)
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• Remnants of caledonian pinewood with
associated broadleaved woodland types.
• Fragments of Atlantic Coastal
Rainforest…globally important.
• Ancient wood Pasture systems including
ancient trees.
• Iconic wildlife
• Rare epiphytes, lichens and mosses

8. How do we go about it?
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• At the base of process is an assessment system, which leads to a risk based
management method for restoring biodiversity. This process can be adapted
and used for the management and monitoring of any conservation woodland.
• Simply put it is a five step process:
• 1. Assess what of importance remains …ancient woodland remnant features
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• 2. Assess threats to their ongoing survival
• 3. Prioritise management action to negate these and make them more robust
• 4. Carry out management action, which takes into account site constraints
and market conditions.
• 5. Monitor the response of remnant features and adjust management
accordingly

9. Remnant Features
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• Ancient or old growth forests are incredibly complicated ecosystems
where trees, plants and fungi form a symbiotic whole.
• Most of the diversity we cannot see: hidden in the soil, within deadwood
or simply seasonally ephemeral.
• We use 4 proxy categories to measure and guide management. These
are easily observed, don’t require specialist knowledge and are suitable
for monitoring over time.

10. Remnant Features
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The four proxy measures are:
1. Ancient woodland specialist ground flora
2. Larger dimension deadwood
3. Pre plantation and relic trees
4. Cultural remains
Soils are also assessed in terms of any obvious damage…compaction
and erosion etc. Together with invasive species and excessive herbivore
impacts.
The pattern of remnant survival is mapped into homogenous zones that
can be effectively mapped and rediscovered.
The building blocks of a management plan
Vital for effective monitoring and contract control

11. flora
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cultural
remains
dead
wood
relic
trees

12. Threats
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Most threats are light related and the
whole process of restoration management
revolves around the management of light.
• Dense shading by exotic conifers: sitka
spruce, douglas fir, western red cedar,
western hemlock. Or invasive species
like Rhododendron ponticum
• Too much light from over thinning,
clearfell or windblow.
Excessive herbivore damage
Disease
Threats are prioritised: critical, threatened,
secure
Threats change in nature and severity
over time

13. Assessment process
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Assessment
form
Form based
Excel sheets
Map
Timber
assessment

14. Assessment process
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Assessment form
Form based
Excel sheets
MAP
Timber
assessment

15. Assessment process
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Form based
Excel sheets
MAP
Timber
assessment

16. Site constraints/opportunities…reality bites
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Access limitations for assessment
inventories, management and monitoring
Wind impact
Deer impacts….politics, policy, access
Distribution and requirements of rare and
valuable species

17. Planning, wrapping it all up, monitoring
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Management plan production underway at Arkaig at the moment with
inventory work contracted out.
Monitoring is crucial to the management planning process and needs to
be planned in at the start of any project.
Plans change, events WILL happen. Effective planning needs to be able
to cope with this and inventory and monitoring is key to this.
Review the AW assessment every five years along with the management
plan as a minimum. Areas where significant work has taken place should
be monitored closely as a matter of course.

18. Inventory/Planning/Action/Surveys/Monitoring Web
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Ecological Inventory(AW Remnants)
planning
action
monitor
review
Species inventories: raptors,
lower plant groups, inverts
especially butterflies, moths,
dragonflies, sawflies. Influence
timing of operations and scope
Initial Timber
inventory for
budgeting
purposes
Compartment specific
timber inventory for sale
and harvesting control
Roading/ bridge
condition checks for
contract control
Compartment
specific detailed
fauna /flora
assessments for
operational control
Response of AW remnants
and valuable species…plan
monitoring strategy at start!
Plan in light of
objectives and the
results of the
monitoring programme