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LIFE improving the conservation status of species and habitats
Old sessile oak woods with Ilex and Blechnum in the British Isles (91A0) Referred to as ‘Atlantic oakwoods’ these acidophilous sessile oak (Quercus petraea) forests are characterised by low-branched trees, evergreen bushes and ferns, mosses, and lichens. Frequently, this oak woodland occurs as part of a mosaic of forest types and the habitat was once common in many maritime regions of the British Isles, as well as northwest France. However, the range of Europe’s old sessile oak woods has significantly retracted and its current conservation status is now rated as ‘unfavourable bad’ at EU level, although reported as improving in the UK which hosts the biggest area of this habitat. Habitat isolation is identified in the Article 17 report as one of the main threats to oak woods. Fragmentation has been aggravated in upland areas by overgrazing, and controlling the invasion of non-native species continues to present a persistent challenge. The rapid spread of rhododendron-related risks is especially problematic and inappropriate forestry practices are also assessed as a contributing factor in the demise of British oak woods. A similar situation has arisen in Ireland, where the habitat area is still decreasing.
Grazing controls have been a common component of LIFE projects, such as the previously mentioned UK project (LIFE97 NAT/UK/004244), which blocked access to forest regeneration sites using more than 61 km of deer fencing at three sites and around 14 km of stock fencing at six additional sites. The results provided a total of 148 ha of protected oak habitat and have made important contributions to improving natural conditions in seven of the UK’s most extensive Atlantic woodlands. Long-term benefits were gained from a co-ordinated deer cull carried out by the same LIFE project, and its findings informed a high-level debate about the reduction of deer numbers in Scottish SACs. The only Irish woodland project so far (LIFE05 NAT/IRL/000182) also recognises the need for effective techniques to address grazing pressures. For example, fencing in protected areas where young native seedlings are being planted. The project is regenerating around 33.5 ha of yew forest at five sites by transplanting young trees propagated from local native cuttings.
Awareness-raising legacies Guidance manuals on these and other types of restoration techniques for Atlantic forest habitats represent another common conservation tool harnessed with effect by LIFE projects. Good practices are included in the ‘Conservation Toolbox’ produced by a UK project (LIFE03 NAT/UK/000044), which features a database of technical information on topics such as managing sycamore in semi-natural woodlands, addressing forest grazing pressures, implementing appropriate coppicing
Habitat
techniques, realising sustainable scrublevel controls and instigating conservation methodologies for farm woodland areas. A another UK project (LIFE00 NAT/UK/007074) produced guidance on thinning Atlantic oak woods and stand dynamics in Tilio-Acerion woodlands, among other measures. Much of this guidance is available online from the LIFE project websites, which continue to provide valuable peer learning opportunities for those involved in improving the unfavourable, often bad, conservation status of Europe’s Atlantic forest habitats.
Conservation status at Biogeographical region level (main regions)
Projects
91A0 Old sessile oak woods
Unfavourable-bad
LIFE97NAT/UK/004244 LIFE00NAT/UK/007074 LIFE03NAT/UK/000044
91C0* Caledonian Forest
Unfavourable-bad
LIFE94NAT/UK/000580 LIFE97NAT/UK/004244
91J0 Taxus baccata forest
Unfavourable-bad
LIFE05 NAT/IRL/000182 LIFE99NAT/UK/006094 LIFE03NAT/UK/000044
FORESTS : ATLANTIC FOREST
LIFE Focus