Would you be interested in owning woodland? I know several people who do. Their motivation is that forests are good for our planet Earth but tree cover has been drastically reduced by us humans. The worst deforestation is occurring in tropical areas such as the Amazon, Indonesia and the Congo. It is not happening in the UK mainly because these lands were stripped of much of their temperate forests in previous centuries, the oaks felled for ship-building and huge areas enclosed for sheep-farming.
Demands for timber
England has one of the lowest rates of forest in Europe at 10.5%, compared with France and Germany, which have about 31%. Scotland has 18.5%.
When new demands for timber occurred, for example for telephone poles, the solution was to plant up huge acreage, especially in Scotland, with quick-growing conifers, a monoculture in monotonous rows. Scientists have now shown that this type of forest is actually harmful to the planet.
Offsetting and rewilding
The movement to offset planet-harming pollution by carbon credits has been enthusiastically endorsed by much of big business that causes the harm – aviation, for example. If one feels guilty about the carbon footprint of a flight, one can click to offset it by investing in some forest project, mostly in the Global South. But Greenpeace criticises carbon offsetting by the polluters, saying that planting trees can’t replace slashing carbon emissions.
Of course, it is good to plant trees wherever there is space and they can be looked after. My sister-in-law in Kent planted about 20 birch trees some two decades ago. The micro-climate they create is noticeable: it is much cooler within the birch tree plantation than anywhere nearby. Other friends, near Darlington, planted up a large field with saplings. But these are essentially plantations, not yet woodland or forest.
Woodland is a community of trees that produce an eco-system, including fungi, animals, birds, insects. Some ecologists, essentially following Darwin’s experiment of observing which plants thrive best in a patch of ground, prefer rewilding – don’t plant trees, just see which take root naturally.
Ancient woodland
In the southeast, the Weald (woodland) once covered most of west Kent and east Surrey. When the Jutes first settled in the fifth century, they came to East Kent. These areas, as place names reveal, are the valleys of the Lesser and Great Stour, the Medway, the Darent, the fertile land on either side of the Roman road Watling Street, and the foot of the Downs. Here, there was availability of water and no need to clear trees at a time when the Weald was thick forest. The Domesday book (11th century) records names almost entirely in those places and omits the Weald. In fact, there must have been some settlement in the Weald, as the big estates of East Kent also owned rights there, for the timber, firewood and pig-rearing. The many villages there ending in -den indicate their origin as woodland settlements.
Over the centuries, the rural economy of the Weald diversified. Cranbrook, for instance, got richer through the wool trade. But, because of the clay soil in these areas of woodland, the roads were almost impassible in winter. The men of West Kent in the 15th century complained that attendance at the Sessions in Canterbury “causeth to some men five days’ journey”.
Some of this woodland is still extant, called “ancient woodland” because it has never been cleared. It is possible to buy up some of this woodland. For example, woodlands.co.uk advertises various plots currently: Reamy Wood at Shadoxhurst, 6¾ acres at £95,000; 5 acres at Detling for £75,000; or 4 acres for £65,000 at Cobham, where “there are countless delights awaiting in this attractive ancient woodland, from the early purple orchids and bluebells to the splendid mature oaks and a large range of broadleaf species”. Another offering advertises “a sweet chestnut coppice wood with oak standards. With great access this private woodland provides a plentiful supply of firewood.”
What can you do with your wood?
Firewood is obtained from such plots by coppicing, which is the ancient practice of cutting back a tree every few years and then letting it regrow. This provides logs and firewood. If these are then sold, they must comply with the firewood regulations, which aim to eliminate pollution due to people using older stoves and burning logs that have been not properly dried. The regulations specify labelling that the wood has been dried properly. They are necessary because of the increasing use of wood stoves in urban areas, where their smoke increases air pollution.
In the Kent countryside, however, there are rural villages where there is no gas supply. People who buy logs from coppiced local woods are accustomed to using log stoves, know about drying logs properly and have space for a log-store outside.
As an owner of private woodland, what you can or can’t do with your wood is tightly regulated. Owners get most flexibility when they work with the Forestry Commission and have an approved forestry management plan. You can only coppice with a felling licence from the Forestry Commission. You can erect buildings and make paths if in connection with forestry purposes, but the use of the plot for dwelling is restricted, including in caravans. There is useful guidance on regulations to be found here.
Wild nature
It is obvious from the advertisements quoted above that the main appeal of purchasing woodland is nature. Although some property owners allow ‘wild camping’, if the site is designated as protected woodland under Article 4, camping for paying guests would be constrained by lack of facilities (availability of drinking water, toilets and cooking facilities). Basic camping is rather different from glamping with all facilities for paying guests, such as at Milbury in Surrey.
Private woodland purchased to preserve nature is often off the beaten track, difficult to access by car, and the paths into it indistinct; deliberately so, to keep it secluded in order to allow the woodland to grow naturally, undisturbed by too much human activity.
Woodland crime
An outrageous example of misuse of woodland has occurred at Hoads Wood nearby, where some criminals cleared trees, drove in and off-loaded some 30,000 tonnes of rubbish. Similar illegal dumping was beginning to occur at the Warren near Ashford in 2020–2022, but it seems to have been stopped before too many loads were dumped, as that area is under public management.
The problem with Hoads Wood is that is privately owned under a scheme that has divided the 80.5-hectare area into small plots, which have been bought up by different owners who may not live locally. In fact, under some schemes, they may not even know where they own land, as they have bought it just because of the idea that owning woodland is good and planet-saving.
The whole wood is an area of special scientific interest. It is reckoned that the dump, which also contains hazardous materials, will cost some £15m to clear. The Environment Agency was ordered by Steve Barclay, environment minister in the last government, to clear the dump, but has not started to do so yet, as it is still asking where the money is to pay for this extra cost on its budget. So, another invoice for the new government.
This crime at Hoads Wood shows up sharply what owning woodland involves. It is obviously better to have such woodland managed by conscientious owners who live locally.
Forestry management
There have been different models of managing forestry in different parts of the world and in different epochs. In Europe, in the Middle Ages, forests that were not totally wild were owned by estates, which belonged to either aristocrats, monastic estates, or the sovereign. As hunting was always regarded as a sport for kings, large areas in England, such as the Forest of Dean, were preserved for this use. Then, shooting became fashionable. Wooded estates in Kent and Surrey were bought up to provide weekend trips for rich sporting parties from London, able to reach the Weald via the newly built railway.
What about ordinary people? Some communities had wooded commons where they could send their pigs and gather winter fuel. But many commons were lost to enclosures and sheep-farming, or to those estates protected by gamekeepers.
The right to roam?
Should more forests now be opened up to the ‘right to roam’? The problem is that too many people would spoil the woodland. Sheer numbers of visitors in some beauty spots could push away the wildlife, especially if they come with barbecues and loud electronic music.
So, we do need a variety of owners and management plans. Some forestry needs to be managed for public access. In both Kent and Surrey, you can discover forest walks in a local wood. But it is also a good thing that there are still people who are willing to undertake the responsibilities involved in owning secluded woodland. There, the nightingales sing!
