Planted Woods on Ancient Woodland sites (PAWS)

The Native Woodland Survey of Scotland (NWSS) surveyed all native woods and near-native woods currently present on ancient woodland sites.

Native Woodland Survey of Scotland (NWSS)

The survey also included other planted woods on ancient woodland sites (PAWS).

Restoration of lowland plantations on ancient woodland sites - PAWS (Forest Research website)

Ancient woodlands usually have a high value for natural and cultural heritage because of their long history of continuous woodland cover.

Ancient and semi-natural woodlands (ASNW)

NWSS provides current information on ancient and semi-natural woodlands (ASNW) and so updates the information in the Ancient Woodland Inventory (Scotland).

ASNW are often described as the most important single category of woods for nature conservation or biodiversity.

The NWSS data on semi-naturalness relates to current stand structure and composition.

A wood scores highly for ‘semi-naturalness’ if it has a:

diverse structure and composition
an absence of indicators of planting such as cultivation, straight lines of trees or geometric shaped stand boundaries

Did you know?

Ancient and semi-natural woods i.e. those where the current stands appear to be naturally regenerated rather than planted, are the woodland category that generally has the highest biodiversity value.

Woods like these are likely to have a higher biodiversity value than more uniform planted woods.

A high semi-naturalness value in NWSS also suggests that a wood has been largely or entirely naturally regenerated. But this cannot be said with certainty without documentary evidence.

It is possible to create an irregular structure in a planted wood by management such as:

irregular thinnings
via chance events e.g. windthrow
prolonged low intensity management

Planted Woods on Ancient Woodland sites (PAWS)

Ancient and semi-natural woodlands (ASNW)

Did you know?

How do we support biodiversity?

Was this page helpful?