Woodland

Abstract

This chapter is mainly concerned with woods surrounded by housing and experiencing a high level of public use; they are criss-crossed by paths, used for adventure play by children, and many receive a considerable management input from the local authority. They form a continuum with the more extensive woods to be found at the city limits, the ecology of which falls within the province of standard works such as Rackham (1976) and Peterken (1981). The North American concept of the ‘Suburban Forest’ (Waggoner and Ovington, 1962) where every tree in a town is thought of as contributing to a network of woodland which is studied as a whole, often by aboriculturalists, is attractive but only applicable to climates where planting for shade is a priority. The European definition of woodland as an area of more or less closed canopy trees associated with a shade-bearing ground layer is accepted here.