Responding to access issues in woodlands & the forest A challenge for managers and owners
Common to many sources of recreational impact on woodlands, environmental damage is most likely when vehicles or horses are driven or ridden off established trails, across steep and wet topography, and on poorly maintained or badly constructed trails. Woodland managers can predict the potential of a site to withstand recreational use by considering plant growth strategies of key ground flora species. Vegetation dominated by medium to tall, herbaceous and woody vegetation in shady conditions is the most sensitive to trampling for example ferns (other than bracken), dog’s mercury, bluebell and enchanter’s nightshade. This contrasts with impacts in vegetation dominated by short, rosette and tussocky species growing in more open conditions, where impacts are less severe such as grasses, sedges and rushes.
James Littlemore and Ian D. Rotherham
Reduce recreational use in woodlands
Control visitor use patterns
Reduce attraction of woodland for access
Re-establish vegetation
Improve surfacing and drainage of existing routes
Reduce facilities
Block off minor routes
Discourage access
Restrict use in vulnerable areas
Provide new routes and reroute Channel use away
Cordon off areas, habitat zoning
(Reproduced with kind permission of the Quarterly Journal of Forestry, a publication of the Royal Forestry Society)
Managing the Resource and the User
Sensitive management techniques are the key in managing for increased access and recreation in Britain’s woodlands. The approach should be orientated towards managing both the resource (i.e. trees, vegetation and soils) and the user. Figure 1 gives a schematic representation of a decision-making model to help inform the forester or woodland manager’s plans.
The Way Forward
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Encourage trampling tolerant vegetation
Trail management
Destruction of habitat
Act now
Artificially increase the carrying capacity
Vegetation management
Do nothing
Concentrate use in durable zones
There are various responses available to site managers. Site zoning in relation to habitat or vegetation is a common approach. This can be combined with innovations in the use of interpretation to engage with people (Plate 1). These can be adopted alongside technical indices to help ascertain the level of risk associated with permitting access to previously undisturbed areas. Ideally the strategy is in place to avoid damage before it occurs rather than to repair a site once it has deteriorated.
Site management plans provide a framework with which to guide decision making for recreation and wildlife conservation. Failure to embrace sympathetic management policies may lead to ecological damage to the site, and also have a negative impact on the environmental quality experienced by the visitor. Potentially site decline create an environment that no longer has the attractive characteristics that visitors originally sought. Some woods can absorb lots of people without seeming crowded, but the trick seems to lie in not allowing over-use to compromise the special qualities that attract people to the wood in the first place. Managers are encouraged to learn from action research projects and real-life case studies. For example, the four year PROGRESS project led by The Forestry
Figure 1: Decision making model of management strategies to resolve conflicts of recreation with conservation in woodlands.
Recreational use exceeds the ecological carrying capacity
Picture: J. Littlemore
Plate 1: The tree top walk at Salcey Forest managed by the Forestry Commission in Northamptonshire provides a truly innovative learning, emotional, behavioural and promotional message for the viewer but at a high financial cost! a World of Trees Issue 16
Commission, Natural England and partners focuses on reconciling recreation with conservation in forests in England and France and there is a handy guide to encouraging good practice.
of the wildlife and vegetation. However, both options need to acknowledge the likely behavioural responses of recreationists and the particular context of the individual site.
Of course people will never behave exactly as you want them to and efforts to control access may not always work. Recreational users do not always stay on defined pathways, so the woodland manager is generally faced with two options in controlling the movement of visitor. The first is to deny access to certain parts of a wood by initiating enforced closures, bearing in mind that such containment strategies will inevitably be unpopular with some user groups. Spatial containment to create permanent sanctuary areas can be used in combination with buffer zones to discourage visitors. If necessary, seasonal restrictions can be imposed during specific time-periods when wildlife is vulnerable to disturbance. This applies especially to protected birds such as birds of prey at nest sites. So it is adopted with the particular species in mind. A second option is to encourage coexistence whilst being aware of how the relative impacts of specific activities impinge on the life-cycles
The provision of recreational infrastructure and form example informal, play equipment, at woodland sites requires careful consideration in light of current legislation including the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. There are also serious matters of health and safety and potential litigation following accidents that need to be carefully considered. Any provision beyond the most basic seating and perhaps picnicking facilities need to be professionally planned. Sound design can help to modify human behaviour, limit access to sensitive areas and avoid dispersal of visitors. If linear routes are maintained and well planned, then the majority of people will stick to them. Very few people will wander off a wellmade path, and if they do, it is unlikely that they will cause significant damage. Special attention must be paid to the potentially more damaging activities such as horse riding so that the benefits of recreational provision for other activities are not reduced. Again this can
a World of Trees Issue 16
Some Issues
be more problematic for the individual small woodland owner than for a large public estate. Ultimately the way forward lies with you – the woodland manager or forester. If you understand the requirements of the particular wildlife and plant species of your wood, and the complexities of the environment in which they species live, along with the possible recreational pressures likely to affect them, then you will be in a better position to anticipate and avoid conflicts, or to resolve them if they occur. There may be important archaeology in your wood as well, and this can be especially vulnerable to trampling and erosion. However, perhaps most important of all is that your woodland is incredibly important to all sorts of local people and brings them huge benefits of pleasure and of quality of life. So it is important too that we never lose sight of how important these woodlands are for people, for wildlife, and for heritage. There is a real danger sometimes that we take all this for granted. James Littlemore lectures at Moulton College, Higher Education Building, Main Site, West Street, Moulton, Northampton, NN3 7RR. 49