Woodland - definition?

[Gary Prentice]

no a coup is from the french cut, it is the area cut at a time, the english is a cant of coppice.

 

You read the wrong dictionaries.

 

Check out thicket and spinney (also from the french)

 

Sorry, what was the original question?

It's early but, you mean a copse is a cant of coppice that hasn't been cut?

 

Back to Kevin's question. I still think the definition of a wood will be dependent on who you're asking. Is there minimum sizes involved in grants? Can there be a definition of something that's in a constant stage of evolution?

[Dorset Treeman]

When I surveyed for the national forest inventory, to be classed as woodland an area of trees had to have greater than 20% canopy cover and be larger than half a hectare (minimum of 20m wide).

 

I don't know if that helps?

[john k]

Although the NFI only includes woodland of 0.5ha and up, it also makes reference to "smaller woods" between 0.1 and 0.5ha...

[openspaceman]

It's early but, you mean a copse is a cant of coppice that hasn't been cut?

 

A cant is an area of coppice offered for sale in a block, it is also a baulk of timber with at least one bark face remaining.

 

Back to Kevin's question. I still think the definition of a wood will be dependent on who you're asking. Is there minimum sizes involved in grants? Can there be a definition of something that's in a constant stage of evolution?

 

When the Surrey group did an analysis of woodland ownership a high proportion of the area was in blocks of less than 0.25ha. and of course these did not receive support from the FC

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

Size is not the best way to define a woodland.

 

Woodlands are an ecosystem which includes; fungi, bacteria, soil, insects, lichens, ferns, grasses, shrubs, birds, butterflies, moths, moles, ponds, open spaces etc etc etc. Trees are just one element of a woodland, but they are the things you notice because they're usually big.

 

Size becomes important as the bigger the woodland, the wider the range of habitats within it. Also, the larger the woodland the greater its resilience to change and ability to be self-sustaining.

 

A dictionary definition is; Land covered with trees. Synonyms;woods, wood, forest, trees

 

FC definition is; ...land under stands of trees with a canopy cover of at least 20% (or having the potential to achieve this), including integral open space, and including felled areas that are awaiting restocking.

 

 

I like that approach! 👍🏻

 

I'd seen the FC 20% canopy piece.

[daltontrees]

The full Forsestry Commission definition is

 

"The definition of woodland in United Kingdom forestry statistics is land under stands of trees with a canopy cover of at least 20% (or having the potential to achieve this), including integral open space, and including felled areas that are awaiting restocking. A tree is defined by its species; a list of tree species in British woodland is given in Chapter 4. There is no minimum height for trees to form a woodland at maturity, so the definition includes woodland scrub but not areas of gorse, Rhododendron, etc., outside woodland. This is a different definition from that used internationally which is based on 10% canopy cover and a minimum height at maturity of 5m, but the two definitions are estimated to give similar areas of woodland in the UK.

 

"There is no minimum size for a woodland. In this report, 'woodland' (defined in the glossary) refers to woods and forests of all sizes. The 1995-99 National Inventory of Woodland and Trees mapped all areas down to 2.0 ha, but sample-based information was also collected for smaller woods, small groups of trees and individual trees. The area statistics in Chapter 1 show totals for woods over 0.1 hectares.

 

"Woodland includes native and non-native trees; semi-natural and plantation areas. Woodland habitat types are not currently differentiated in these statistics."

 

However, this is a statistics collection definition, and therefore has its limitations. It could be useful as a starting point, depending on the purpose of trying to define an area as a woodland (or otherwise).

 

It seems to me that anything smaller than 0.1Ha it would be stretching a point to call it a woodland. 0.1ha would measure (if it was square) 30 metres by 30 metres. Or a circle of diameter 35 metres.