“It Gets You Away From Everyday Life”: Local Woodlands and Community Use—What Makes a Difference?

Abstract

This paper explores who uses woodlands near their homes, why they visit, what benefits they believe they obtain and what makes the difference between them choosing to visit or not. In the research, supported by the Forestry Commission, a multi-method, user-led approach was used, based on focus groups, questionnaire surveys and on-site observation in relation to five different communities in the central belt of Scotland. The conclusions demonstrate the overriding importance of childhood woodland visits as predictors of adult patterns of use. Proximity of woodlands is important for regular woodland users and freedom from rubbish is the physical quality people care most about. The physical qualities that make a difference as to whether people visit woodlands or not include directional signs, good information boards, variety of trees and tidiness of appearance. Perceptions of woodlands differ according to age and sex but are predominantly positive across all groups sampled: most people feel at peace in a woodland.

Keywords:

• Community woodlands
• social forestry
• urban woodlands
• central Scotland
• children
• nature
• open space
• environmental perception

Acknowledgements

This research project was carried out by the Landscape Design and Research Unit and the OPENspace research centre at Edinburgh College of Art/Heriot Watt University. JoAnna Wherrett managed the focus groups discussions and Margaret Scott Myers produced the questionnaire and early analysis of its results. Stephen Robertson, Katherine Southwell, Penny Travlou, Stella Wisdom and Carol Omar contributed to data collection and presentation. Max Hislop supervised the project for the Forestry Commission under the direction of Marcus Sangster. The authors are grateful to the many other individuals and organizations that have assisted and contributed to the data collected, especially the people of Alloa, Corstorphine, Lennoxtown, Whitburn and Wishaw.