Managing urban ancient woodlands: A case study of Bowden Housteads Wood, Sheffield

Abstract

Managing urban ancient woodland sustainably is problematic and furthermore, there is a lack of detailed, long-term case-study evidence. These issues are discussed with respect to a particular case study site in Sheffield, England. This example is especially informative due to the long timeline of the known site management. It also raises serious issues for future management and the consequences of the processes of urbanisation. Composition, structure and condition of the case-study wood, Bowden Housteads Wood, prior to management in early 1988, are placed in their historical and social contexts. When late twentieth-century management took place, it was the first active intervention on the site for over a century. The implementation of a series of management plans are then described covering the periods 1987–1991, 2000–2005 and 2009–2013. Interpretation of vegetation condition and the monitoring of recovery following intervention demonstrated a remarkable ability of typical ancient woodland flora to reappear. However, there are long-term issues of human encroachment onto the site from nearby housing with the twin impacts of (1) introduction of exotic and potentially invasive species, and (2) destruction of the last pockets of rare woodland indicator plants. The paper emphasises that, in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, managing public amenity woods in heavily populated urban areas is as much about public relations as it is about woodmanship and ecological principles. Furthermore, managing publicly owned amenity woodland is a long-term process and this becomes problematic when public services are being rapidly eroded by national governmental policies. The paper reflects action research and observation with stakeholders over a 30-year period.

Keywords:

• urban woodland
• ancient woodland
• management plans
• coppicing
• selective thinning
• group felling
• public relations

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Sheffield City Council officers and managers for valuable discussions and assistance over the years: Jim Kerr, John Gilpin, Dan Lewis, Nick Sellwood and Ted Talbot. We thank delegates at the 2011 AAB conference on Vegetation Management for their feedback, and for referees from the same conference for their comments and advice.