According to the most recent Forestry Commission datasets there are ~76,000ha of unmanaged woodland in the North East and Yorkshire. This is approximately 31% of the total woodland in the region. Publicly managed forests– those managed by Forestry England – account for a similar proportion of the woodland [1] whilst privately managed woodland makes up the remaining 37% of the region’s woodland. The figures were extracted from the Forestry Commission Woodland Officer Boundaries England[2] and Woodland that is sustainably managed in England (31 March 2023)[3] datasets.
The woodland management dataset includes shapefiles of existing woodlands across in England in accordance with the National Forest Inventory’s(NFI) definition of woodland (areas of at least 0.5ha with a minimum width of 20 metres and that have a least 20% tree canopy cover (or the potential to achieve this))[4].The map focuses on the woodland in the North East and Yorkshire.
Large publicly managed forests can be identified such as Kielder Forest in Northumberland, Hamsterley Forest in County Durham and Dalby Forest in North Yorkshire. There is no distinct spatial pattern of the unmanaged woodland: there are unmanaged woodlands across the region. These often appear to be small and fragmented but there are some larger clusters of unmanaged woodland.
‘Sustainably managed’ woodland is defined by the Forestry Commission as woodland that is managed to the UK Forestry Standard that has a Woodland Management Plan or woodland for which a grant or felling licence has been provided in the last 15 years. Whilst other woodland may be considered managed but is not defined as such above, the dataset collected by the Forestry Commission provides an indication, over time, of the trends in woodland management in the region.
Active and sustainable woodland management has a range of benefits including mitigating against the impacts of climate change and encouraging resilience amongst our forests and woodlands, supporting the rural economy and providing employment, improving biodiversity and providing important habitats to wildlife. This is discussed in more depth in the following Forestry Commission blog post written by Northwoods Project Manager Rosanna Curtis.
[1] The datasets assume nearly all of the publicly managed forests are designated as 'managed'.
[2] https://data-forestry.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/1c565f159baa4c9e94e1d5520b68afc6_0/explore?location=52.015386%2C-4.168275%2C6.58
[3] https://data-forestry.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/e1c1d7ead37d4feea303c1bf6f5a0369_0/explore?location=52.817872%2C-2.445765%2C7.50
[4] https://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/tools-and-resources/national-forest-inventory/about-the-nfi/