Wet woodland

Wet woodlands are powerhouses of insect biomass production. 

A wet woodland in West Devon has recently been estimated to produce 38 million flies per hectare per year.

Wet woodlands play an important role in carbon storage and flood management.

What we need to do and where
Beaver, Svetozar Cenis - Unsplash

Beaver, Svetozar Cenis – Unsplash

Snapshot

What wildlife-rich looks like:

Willows, downy birch and alder trees growing in very wet soils or water. Lots of standing and fallen dead and decaying wood.  Unpolluted.  Lots of insects providing food for birds and bats.  Light cattle  grazing cattle creates microhabitats within the woodland. In some areas beavers also create microhabitats and add to the amount of dead wood through felling trees.   

Focus Species:

Specialists:  Willow tits, wet woodland flies (Coenosia pudorosa), wet woodland lichens, wet woodland fungi including hazel gloves fungus

Others:  All Focus Species bats (especially Bechstein’s), water vole, beaver, otter, lesser-spotted woodpecker.

Status:

UK Priority Habitat.  Irreplaceable habitat where it is in an Ancient Woodland. Ancient or Veteran trees within the wet woodland are irreplaceable habitat.

1. About

Wet woodlands are wildlife-rich habitats but are often overlooked. Devon is likely to support more wet woodlands than most other English counties due to its size, climate and wet soils

Devon’s wet woodlands are dominated by short lived tree species such as willow, alder and downy birch which grow in very wet soils.  They are a relatively short-lived habitat which, over time, develop into drier woodlands. They would once have been common across the county but have been lost through land clearance and drainage.

Small areas of wet woodlands are now largely found in the wetter parts of broadleaved woodlands (often valley floors and along streams), as small patches along streams and in wet areas in the wider countryside.  They form an important part of the wildlife rich mosaics on the wet soils of the north Devon Culm, Dartmoor Rhos pastures and East Devon/Blackdown Hills spring line mires. See heaths, mires and rush pastures.

Wet woodlands are especially important for insects and other invertebrates which thrive in the damp environment, especially when there is lots of dead wood. Invertebrates are an essential food source for birds and bats, including Bechstein’s and willow tits (both Focus Species). Willow tits are a wet woodland specialist species and are thought to be the country’s fastest declining resident bird species.

 Wet woodlands are often dark environments and support few flowering plants but in more open areas characteristic species can include marsh marigold, yellow flag iris and meadowsweet.  Wet woodlands in more open areas provide perfect habitat for rare lichens which live on the well-lit bark of willows on the edges of the woodlands.  Fungi to be added…

Beavers are once more starting to move into Devon’s wet woodlands, diversifying the structure and, through tree felling, increasing the volume of decaying and dead wood present.

The rapid growth of wet woodland trees means that they are better at carbon capture than many other woodland types, especially those on peaty soils. 

Explain – Temperate rainforests vs wet woodlands – umbrella vs wellies!

Health check

To be added through Consultation. 

Area and distribution

Unknown?

Designations

17 SSSIs include Wet Woodland.

Arlington, Killerton, Bovey Valley, Holne Woods, Sampford Spiney, Shaugh Prior Woods, Slapton Ley, Braunton Burrows, Andrew’s Wood, Dunsdon Farm, Dunsland Park, Hense Moor, Ashculm Turbary (a DWT nature reserve), Southey and Gotleigh Moor and Blackdown, Sampford Common, Yarner Wood and Wolborough Fen.

2 of these (indicated in Bold) are NNRs

County Wildlife Sites:  Figure to be inserted from DBRC.

Condition

NE data (2023) suggest between 62 and 68% of wet woodland in Devon within SSSIs is in favourable condition with another 26-30% unfavourable recovering.

Add CWS data. 

Key pressures and opportunities

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Dynamic and connected habitats

If left unmanaged many wet woodlands will eventually dry out and evolve into broadleaved woodland. To hold them at wet woodland stage there is a need to ensure water tables remain high and/or water flow is maintained. However wet woodlands need to be seen as part of a continually changing, and dynamic, landscape and that new areas of wet woodland are allowed to develop ideally near to existing habitats in order to improve connectivity for wet woodland specialist species such as lichens and willow tits.

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Cattle grazing and dead wood

Light cattle grazing of wet woodlands provides shade and shelter for cattle and also increases invertebrate diversity through cattle creating microhabitats within the woodland (see Wet woodland flies).  Wet woodlands are often permanently fenced off from adjacent wet grasslands in the mistaken belief this will benefit wildlife.

Dead and decaying wood also provides a critical habitat for invertebrates and fungi which is often ‘tidied up’ in woodlands.  This must be left in situ.

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Water quality and quantity – natural flood management

Reductions in water flow in and around wet woodlands, along with any changes in the nutrient load in the water flow, can detrimentally impact the structural diversity of wet woodlands.   Retaining flow and quality are key. Wet woodlands are themselves are critical ‘nature based solution’ helping to store water and reduce flooding and also (to some extent) acting as buffers to other more sensitive habitats such as mires and watercourses.

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Climate and carbon sequestration

Climate change, through increasing the frequency and severity of summer droughts, poses a major threat to wet woodland wildlife which often depends on a continuously damp environment.

Wet woodlands trees grow quickly and will capture carbon quicker than other trees.  Wet woodlands should therefore be given higher priority when creating habitats to capture and store carbon.  

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Invasives and diesease

Non-native invasives like skunk cabbage and himalayan balsam may pose an increasing threat.  Increasing incidence of tree diseases, especially alder rot disease (Phytophthora alni), are a concern if they get to the stage where the health of stands is seriously threatened, although the resulting dead wood is important for invertebrates and fungi. 

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Lack of appreciation

Despite their wildlife value wet woodlands are often overlooked by both ecologists and foresters and sometimes cleared in favour of open habitats such as mires and wet heath. This clearance is sometime the best wildlife option, but not always.  We need mosaics of habitats and any land use decision needs to be taken through understanding habitats and species needs in the wider landscape. 

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Funding

There is funding available from the Forestry Commission to support woodland management planning and grants are available for new wet woodland creation.

2. What we need to do and where

Priority

Better (wildlife rich), bigger and more wet woodlands that are connected to a network of habitats across the landscape, particularly where this will benefit Focus Species and achieve wider social benefits. 

See Find out more for national and local woodland targets.

Actions for wet woodland

For links to guidance, funding and sources of advice please see Find out more.

Manage, restore and create wet woodlands, particularly for Focus Species. 

  • Manage, create and remove wet woodlands as part of a continually changing, and dynamic, landscape. Wet woodlands should be expanded and created where they will benefit specialist species such as lichens and willow tits. In some situations wet woodlands may need to be cleared where they have developed over potentially wildlife rich mire or rush pasture habitats.
  • Lightly graze wet woodlands with cattle at a stocking density that creates microhabitats but also allows natural regeneration within the woodland.
  • Retain standing and fallen dead and decaying wood.
  • Maintain and improve water quality within wet woodlands, particularly through:
    • reducing agricultural run-off through following best practice management for nutrients, slurry and manure.
  • Managing and reducing road and road drain run-off
  • Control any problematic invasive species such as skunk cabbage.
  • Develop a woodland management plan informed by habitat and species surveys and past management. Use the national Woodland Condition Assessment  toolkit and in accordance with the Forestry Commission’s management guidance and the UK  Forest Standards. See links in Find out more.

Survey, monitoring and awareness 

  • Increase the understanding of the value of wet woodlands for wildlife, but also of the need to treat them as part of a dynamic mosaic of habitats.
  • Survey and analysis of existing data should be undertaken to identify key sites and networks. Habitat management and restoration can then be targeted to areas where it is most needed. 

Other relevant actions

Read more about relevant habitats and themes, and look for these Focus Species and groups

  • Woody habitat birds: Willow tit
  • Lichens: Wet woodland lichens
  • True flies: A satellite fly
  • Freshwater mammals: Beaver

In the following pages:

Where to focus action

High Opportunity Areas include:

All wet woodlands across Devon.  There is unfortunately not a map of wet woodlands which could be used in the LNRS.

Bechstein’s bat woodland zone

Willow tit recovery areas 

See Mapping.

3. Inspiration

Case studies

Agree case studies etc through Consultation.

Wet woodlands in the Bovey Valley and Yarner Woods are being managed and restored for their special species as part of a landscape scale management approach to integrated habitat management across woodland, farmland and heathland.  How????

North Devon Biosphere Wood 4 Water?   supports landowners to create woodland to improve water quality and reduce flooding.  Does this include wet woodland?

Where to visit

Always follow the Countryside Code and stick to footpaths and sites that are managed for public access. 

Sites with public access include the Woodland Trust and Natural England woods at Yarner and Bovey Valley and the Devon Wildlife Trust reserves at Andrews Wood and Ashculm Turbary.  

Slapton Ley National Nature Reserve includes a significant areas of will woodland.

The Explore Devon website has more information on where to visit wet woodlands.

4. Find out more

To add through Consultation

Management

A Woodland Condition Assessment toolkit has been developed by members of the England Woodland Biodiversity Group (including FC, NE, Woodland Trust, Field Studies Council, Forest Research and Sylvia Foundation). Link to the woodland condition assessment form.

The Forestry Commission’s  woodland management web  guidance on GOV.UK has lots of useful information including woodland management plans, funding and regulations (tree felling licences, protected species etc).

Pages 23 – 36 of the United Kingdom Forest Standard (UKFS)  set out requirements for biodiversity.

Forestry Commission guidance on the management of wet woodlands

Devon Wildlife Trust Guidance note on the management of wet woodlands

Buglife guidance on the management of wet woodlands

Catchment management plan guidance

WWT guidance at wet woodlands

Details on Favourable Conservation Status for wet woodlands is at Natural England Advice

Targets

Natural England (2023) has produced a report defining Favourable Conservation Status for wet woodland https://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/file/5555545055166464.

Targets include:

At least 80% of wet woodland should be within woodland patches at least 30 ha in size, located in an area with semi-natural surroundings as opposed to being surrounded by intensive farmland
Based on the requirements of notable associated species, for example willow tit and Bechstein’s bat, woodland patches should be within 5 km in core areas or 3 km of other mature woodland habitats. Connection can be via hedgerows, tree lined watercourses, wetlands and meadows. 
 
Better
Long Term. 95% at JNCC Favourable Conservation Status
Long Term. 80% in good condition as per Woodland Condition Assessment
Long term. Wet woodlands in active management for biodiversity, climate and sustainable forestry
 
Short Term. 70% of wet woodlands in active management by 2030
Short Term. Majority of PAWs in restoration by 2030.
 
More, Larger and better connected
Long Term.  Expanded as part of 16.5% woodland cover by 2050
 
Short term.  Part of 3,000 ha’s of new woodland by 2030

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