SBIS AWI Update progress

During the 1980s and 1990s the Ancient Woodland Inventory (AWI) was digitised to create a national dataset of ancient woodlands. However, this was before computer mapping was available and used a limited range of source material.

The AWI update will improve the accuracy and extent of the dataset, using GIS and new mapping software techniques. It will also include smaller woodlands and wood pasture, which were not included last time. This update will use a wider range of sources and information, including old maps, species records, geological reports, satellite imagery and LiDAR data.

SBIS began work on the Ancient Woodland Inventory update for Suffolk in November 2021.

The project is now entering its final phase, with SBIS staff and volunteers looking for potential new AWI sites on historic Suffolk maps (1600–1845) from Suffolk Archives at the Hold in Ipswich, and will be conducting field surveys in the Spring. 

We want to thank our wonderful volunteers for all the time and effort they have contributed to the project so far.

If you'd like to take part in the search for Ancient Woodlands contact: [email protected]

Summer 2024

The project is now in Phase 3 of 4, with the main focus on checking potential new ancient woodland or pasture and parkland sites on historic maps dating back as far as 1600. 

The SBIS team along with a group of volunteers are exploring enclosure and estate maps at the Hold in Ipswich. They hope to find evidence of woodlands as far back as 1600 and collect this data to contribute to the Ancient Woodland Inventory Update. 

They have already searched over 500 archive maps and work continues until the end of August. We would like to thank our wonderful volunteers for all the time and effort they have contributed to the project so far. 

Spring 2024

SBIS continues to work on the Ancient Woodland Inventory update which commenced in November 2021 for Suffolk. 

The project is now in Phase 3 of 4, with the main focus on checking potential new ancient woodland or pasture and parkland sites on historic maps dating back as far as 1600. SBIS currently has 29 volunteers who have completed site checking on three Ordnance Survey maps spanning 1800 – 1900, a fruitful effort which has covered the entire county in 3 months. 

Having completed this, volunteers are now directing efforts towards examining LiDAR data, exploring enclosure and estate maps using Suffolk Archives at the Hold in Ipswich as well as conducting field surveys come Spring. We would like to thank our wonderful volunteers for all the time and effort they have contributed to the project so far. 

Summer 2023

SBIS has been working on updating the Ancient Woodland Inventory (AWI) for Suffolk since November 2021. The project has been progressing steadily with promising results. 

Natural England commissioned the update of the AWI nationally to be investigated at a county level, providing support and guidance as the project is completed. When work was initially undertaken to map Ancient Woodland in Suffolk, major ancient woodlands were captured, providing a good start for the inventory. This project is looking to further that work by investigating Suffolk’s historical records and going into finer detail than was previously possible. Woods of an area as small as 0.25ha can now be included. With the aid of digital mapping and the availability of resources online, the data gathered for this project will provide a clearer and more substantiated inventory of ancient woodland in Suffolk.

Thus far, work has been undertaken to investigate the presence of woodland on Ordnance Survey Epoch 1 maps (1861-85) and aerial photography (2018-20). Subsequent comparison to the current Ancient Woodland Inventory (AWI) has revealed areas of potential new ancient woodland and some possible AWI errors that need to be checked. This update sees the addition of Wood Pasture and Parkland habitat that shall be added where substantial historical evidence is available. 

Currently, work is being undertaken to examine historical maps and documentary evidence to build a history of each woodland site. This includes accessing archives held at The Hold in Ipswich as well as using online resources. Each site will need evidence of woodland presence from 1600 to the present using 50-year intervals to be taken forward as a possible addition to the AWI. 

Work is also underway to conduct Ancient Woodland surveys by a wonderful group of local volunteers investigating woodland all over the county. These ground truthing surveys have been instrumental in identifying ancient woodland species presence, woodland structure and management and providing expert opinion on the ancient status of each woodland. Thank you to all our volunteers for their time and hard work.

Once historical evidence and survey data has been amalgamated for potential new ancient woodland sites, each case shall be reviewed to decide if that woodland shall be put forward as a possible addition to the AWI. This is exciting work, and we at SBIS are keen to see how much ancient woodland will be added and where exactly this is. Once Natural England approves the additions, a review of the inventory update be published and available to the public; we shall be sure to provide an update on this closer to the time. 

Autumn 2022

The Ancient Woodland Inventory (AWI) identifies woodlands that have had continuous woodland cover since the 1600s. Studies show that these are typically more ecologically diverse and of a higher nature conservation value than those developed recently.

In the 1980s, the Nature Conservancy Council instigated the AWI, which attempted to identify all ancient woodlands in the UK. However, it used tracings from paper maps. As a result, it contained many boundary discrepancies and didn’t include woodlands under 2 ha.

The AWI is a valuable resource that protects known ancient woodlands through planning and policy. It is the definitive list of ancient woodland boundaries and is used, for example, within conservation or development projects nationally. Therefore, updating it is key to ensuring accuracy and protecting ancient woodland in Suffolk. The current AWI has around 4,524 ha of ancient woodland registered within the county’s 385,245 ha, roughly 1.2%.

Phase 1 of the work on the update project began in 2021, and, to date, 155,974 ha (156 km²) of Suffolk have been checked for long-established woodland (see Map) by using aerial photographs and the Epoch 1 Ordnance Survey map that dates from the 1860s to 1880s. 

Phase 2 of this project will commence in 2023 and includes gathering evidence of ancientness from historical documents, and we will access many of them at the Hold’s archives. 

Field survey work is set to take place early in 2023 to provide further evidence of ancient woodland indicator species. We will be calling for volunteers to help undertake this work after Christmas. 

Spring 2022

The Ancient Woodland Inventory (AWI) was first produced in the 1980s as a paper-based exercise. Without the benefits of modern technology, and being largely desk-based, it inevitably had many errors and omissions. It also only included woods that were larger than 2ha. In the Southeast, the AWI was revised using more modern mapping technology and included the sub-2ha woodlands. This project is about expanding this work across all counties of England.

The Ancient Woodland Inventory update uses a consistent and quality-controlled methodology, set out by Natural England, to create an accurate record of ancient woodland and ancient wood-pasture in England. 
This will:

• Ensure all Ancient Woodland is recorded so that it can receive planning policy protection.
• Form a key evidence base, essential to enabling Local Planning Authorities to fulfil their National Planning Policy Framework duties.
• Provide an evidence base to underpin landscape-scale plans such as Nature Recovery Networks and initiatives.

The inclusion of many smaller woods will aid protection of the larger fragments by enhancing links between them and, in some cases, buffering designated sites. 

Important indicator species, such as Oxlip, often survive in the small ancient woodland fragments, therefore, designation can help protect populations of nationally scarce species. This also applies to the less popular groups like beetles or fungi where rare species are being lost before ever being recorded.

This project has five methodological phases that will utilise desk-based mapping, historical documents research and field surveys.

Currently, the project is in Phase 1. This stage involves identifying sites of long-established, and therefore potentially ancient, woodland. This examines present woodland in modern aerial photographs and 1st Edition Ordnance Survey maps from the mid 1800s and takes place on a detailed grid square by grid square basis across the whole of Suffolk.
The following stages are: 

• Phase 2: cross-reference sites identified as potentially ancient in Phase 1 with sites identified as ancient in the current AWI.
• Phase 3: The most in-depth phase, which will employ various historical mapped data sources to expand the chronological span of the data used and enrich the evidence base for each candidate site. This is also the phase that includes the woodland survey programme. 
• Phase 4: evaluate all gathered evidence and decide the status of a site – whether it should be categorised as ancient semi-natural woodland or plantations on ancient woodland sites.
• Phase 5: submitting a long-established woodland dataset, a provisional updated ancient woodland dataset along with a written project report to Natural England.

For more information on ancient woodland please visit: 
www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/habitats/ancient-woodland