The
Lincolnshire limewoods are a cluster of medium-sized or large woods in the Wragby area
in which small-leaved lime is the commonest tree. This may be the last stand, as it were, of
lime in the county because the tree was evidently commoner in the past to judge by the
numerous lin-or bass- place-names. The latter refers to the fibrous bark or bast,
once used
for matting and to make carrier bags known as basses. The woods lie on neutral to acidic
heavy clays with surface deposits of even more infertile sand and gravel. Though sensitive to
grazing, lime is otherwise virtually immortal, and ready to regenerate from half- rotten stumps
or even bits of buried root.
The
prevailing type of woodland is a mixture of overgrown lime, ash and hazel coppice, with
oak standards and a great deal of birch. Some stands lie on richer soil and include more base-
demanding trees such as maple and Midland hawthorn; others, on soil too poor for ash, are
classed as oak-lime woods. The combination of so many different types of lime- dominated
woodland is exceptional and there is potential for establishing a composite management plan
for the cluster.
The Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Naturalists' Trust (BB ONT) owns 10
ancient
woods of total area 358 ha. Planning the composite management of these woods has been
carried out in two stages:
(1) A strategic review of the occurrence
of different stand types across the 10 woods and the
identification of suitable long-term stand treatments for all compartments so as to (a) identify
treatments in keeping with the existing character and conservation interest of each wood and,
(b) to create a series of woodland structures supporting a variety of plant and animal
communities. This review also states the policy objectives for BBONT's woods, including many
of the management recommendations contained in this chapter.
(2) Formulation of conventional management plans for
each wood, detailing precise treatments
for compartments (e.g. rotation length, thinning regimes) and for glades, rides and other edges.
These management prescriptions build on the framework established in the strategic review.
Hence, the strategic review sets a coherent policy for the management of BBONT's woods and
ensures that the management plans for individual woods are not entirely independent.
The aim was to ensure
that each wood complements the rest by formulating plans which were (i)
appropriate to the interest and current condition of each compartment of each wood, but which also
(ii) ensure that no two woods are managed identically, and (iii) include in the woods as a whole a
reasonable amount of each of the main management options.
A summary of the long-term
stand types proposed for the woods is given in the table below.
|
Wood
|
Short
rotation
coppice
|
Long
rotation
coppice
|
Broad
leaved
high
forest
|
Mixed
high
forest
|
Natural
woodland
|
Scrub
|
|
12.9ha
|
-
|
2.1
|
10.8
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|
20.2ha
|
1.2
|
3.7
|
12.6
|
-
|
2.7
|
-
|
|
85.0ha
|
10
|
11.0
|
38.0
|
11.0
|
15.0
|
-
|
|
43.0ha
|
4.0
|
-
|
28.0
|
-
|
11.0
|
-
|
|
22.4ha
|
-
|
-
|
22.4
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|
42.5ha
|
-
|
-
|
42.5
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|
9.5ha
|
-
|
-
|
9.5
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|
23.1ha
|
3.5
|
8.9
|
9.6
|
-
|
1.1
|
-
|
|
41.9ha
|
10.6
|
-
|
15.7
|
-
|
13.0
|
2.6
|
|
57.3ha
|
3.7
|
0.8
|
39.2
|
-
|
10.4
|
3.2
|
|
Total
|
33.0
|
26.5
|
228.3
|
11.0
|
53.2
|
5.8
|
|
%
|
9.2
|
7.4
|
63.8
|
3.1
|
14.9
|
1.6
|
Significant proportions of the broadleaved high forest will be derived from derelict
coppice (38
ha) and from conifer plantations (53 ha). The overall balance of habitats will be: coppice 60 ha
(17% of total area), high forest 239 ha (67%), natural woodland 53 ha (15%), scrub 6 ha (2%).
BBONT manages substantial areas of chalk scrub which were not included within this review
though it would be possible to undertake a similar exercise for grassland and scrub habitats.
