Woodland in the UK encompasses a huge range of ecological variation. This section of the guidance is essentially applicable to all woodland habitats, in both 'lowland' and 'upland' situations, including wood pasture/parkland and fen/bog woodlands. Additional, more detailed guidance on specific woodland types including less conventional structures such as bog woodland is being developed.

 

Specific guidance for scrub types is not included, although much of the approach set out here could also be applied to scrub. Guidance for montane willow scrub and upland juniper scrub is included within the Upland habitats section.

 

This guidance will need to be used in conjunction with that for other features that may qualify in their own right on a site, particularly species interests, but also for other habitat features. For woodland on coastal cliffs and slopes the relevant coastal habitat guidance should be consulted. For wet woodlands associated with open mire vegetation the lowland wetland or upland guidance should be consulted as appropriate.

 

Guidance is given on defining the feature of interest, selecting attributes and setting targets. There is also advice on making an overall assessment of condition for for woodland features.