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Surrey is the most wooded county at 22.4% woodland cover equating to 37,564 hectares with the Surrey Hills AONB at 40% woodland cover which is 16,270 hectares, amounting to almost half the total.
The current growing demand for wood fuel now makes much of the Ancient Semi Natural Woodland of commercial interest, often with yields of up to150 tonnes per hectare on a 16 to 25 year sustainable rotation of coppiced timber species, not including hazel.
The Rio Summit of 1992 prompted the UK Biodiversity Action Plan and ‘Results from the England Biodiversity strategy show a worrying trend for the decline of wildflowers. The survey reports a decline of 34% of Ancient Semi Natural Woodland indicator species between the period 1990 and 2007’
The Deer Society and Government figures advise an annual cull in the U.K. of 250,000 per annum with 74,000 Road Traffic Accidents directly related to deer annually.
the character of English woodland has consequently changed dramatically over the last 100 years. Traditional management, very often coppice with standards has largely died out and the woodland structure, which is so important for birds has changed.’
‘Neglected coppice has developed a simple structure, and deer browsing which is probably the biggest single issue for woodland management, is degrading both shrub and field layers.’