Lesson video

Hi everyone.

My name is Ms. Boyle, and welcome to the second lesson in our local and global geography unit.

Why are trees and forests important? Today's lesson is about mapping trees locally.

I hope you're feeling excited because I am really looking forward to teaching you this lesson.

By the end of today's lesson, you will be able to use map information to decide whether a woodland is semi-natural ancient woodland, replanted ancient woodland, or a recent plantation.

You are going to become woodland detectives to do this.

Here are the key words for today's lesson.

Let's read and define each one so that we will understand it when we come across them.

First we have forest, then, plantation conifer, boundary.

Great job.

Let's take a look at their definitions.

A forest is a large area full of trees.

A plantation is an area of land on which one kind of crop is grown.

For example, trees for wood.

Conifers are a group of trees and shrubs, usually evergreen that have fruit called cones and needle or scale-shaped leaves.

And a boundary is a physical or imaginary line that marks the edge of a particular area.

There are two parts to today's lesson.

Before we look at how trees are mapped, we need to know what a forest or woodland is and the different types that we might find in the UK.

Then we will use all of our mapping skills to help us identify these types of trees on maps.

So let's begin with what types of woodland are there? Groups of trees are called a forest.

The term "forest" refers to an area of wooded land In the UK, woods are smaller than forests.

For example, lock archaic pine forest in the highlands of Scotland is 2,500 acres.

While St.

John's Wood in Devon is just three acres.

In natural woodland, young trees and saplings grow to replace the trees that have died after reaching maturity.

This means that underserved areas of woodland can continue to exist in the same location for many years.

However, very few wooded areas have been allowed to grow undisturbed in the UK.

Can you think why this might be? We just said that after trees reach maturity, they die.

The age of trees when they die can vary.

We actually have some ancient trees in the UK that are much older than you might think.

Some species of trees can live for thousands of years.

The oldest tree in the UK is thought to be this yew tree, in Fortingall, Perthshire.

It is estimated to be between 2,000 and 3,000 years old.

It's possible to calculate the age of an individual tree using clues like tree rings and its girth or appearance.

Usually, we can use the rings of a tree to calculate its age, but really, ancient trees in the UK like the one in Perthshire are often hollow, so this can make dating them difficult.

To calculate the age of a forest or wood, we use maps like these of Mereworth Woods in Kent.

If a wood is shown on a historical map, then we can assume it has existed since the time the map was drawn.

Both of these maps shown Mereworth Woods but the one on the left is from the 1890s and the one on the right is a modern OS map.

So we can assume that there has been woodland cover here for at least 130 years.

It's important to note that not all of the trees that existed in Mereworth Woods in 1890 will still be there in 2024.

New saplings replaced the older dying trees.

So while individual trees have changed, the cover of woodland has not.

Forests and woods can be categorised by the age of the trees in them.

In the UK today, there are four types of woodland.

Ancient, semi-natural ancient, replanted ancient, and recent plantation.

Ancient woods are areas of woodland that have existed since 1600 in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland and 1750 in Scotland.

This was when Queen Elizabeth I was still on the English throne.

This is when maps started to be reasonably accurate.

So we can tell that these areas have had tree cover for hundreds of years.

Just 2.

5% of the UK land is covered in ancient woodland.

That's 609,990 hectares.

Let's check your understanding.

True or false, the UK is covered in lots of ancient woodland.

Pause the video and select your answer.

That is false.

Well done.

Now it's time to justify your answer.

A, very few wooded areas have been allowed to grow undisturbed in the UK> Or B, humans have not touched ancient woodlands.

Pause the video and select the correct justification.

The answer is A, well done.

The UK is not covered in lots of ancient woodland because very few wooded areas have been allowed to grow undisturbed in the UK.

All woodland in the UK today is now considered to be semi-natural as no areas remain that have not been touched by people in some way.

Semi-natural ancient woodland is composed of native trees with no obvious planting.

They have developed naturally, but most have been used by humans, often managed for timber and other industries over the centuries, but they have had woodland cover for over 400 years.

Because they're relatively undisturbed by human development, they have developed into unique and complex communities of plants, fungi, insects, and other microorganisms that are extremely important for biodiversity.

Semi-natural ancient woodlands are of high ecological and heritage value.

High ecological value means they play an important role in supporting biodiversity as they are habitats and sources of food for animals.

They are a vital part of our heritage as they are all that remain of the original forests, which covered most of the UK.

Replanted ancient woodland must also be continuous since 1600, but with former cover removed and is often planted with non-native conifers, which sadly are lower in biodiversity potential.

Typically, these are conifers, but it can also include broadleaf planting such as non-native beech, red oak, and sweet chestnut.

Recent plantation.

Recently planted woods or forests are not ancient.

They are usually managed by private landowners or the forestry commission.

These trees are sometimes planted to provide a source of renewable wood to create habitats for wildlife or even to help combat climate change.

So we know that trees in a recent plantation forest are trees that are planted to provide a source of renewable timber to be used as fuel to create habitats for wildlife or even to help combat climate change.

If the trees are used for timber or fuel, then they are planted, monitored, and then cut down when they are big enough to make sure they never run out of wood.

The forest will have sections of different age trees.

Some ready to be cut, some still growing, and some just planted.

Let's check your understanding.

What type of woodland does this describe? Woodland that has had continuous cover since 1600, but older trees have been removed and other trees planted.

Is the answer A, semi-natural ancient woodland, B, replanted ancient woodland or C recent plantation? Pause the video and select the correct answer.

The answer is B, replanted ancient woodland, well done.

Replanted ancient woodland is when an ancient woodland has its existing trees cleared and removed, then new and often non-native species replanted.

It's time for your first task today and it is to summarise the three types of woodland that we have learned about.

I would like you to tell your geography buddy two facts about each type of woodland.

Semi-natural ancient woodland, replanted ancient woodland, and recent plantation.

You may need these words in your facts.

Native.

Remember, native species are those already growing in a place and not introduced by humans.

Non-native.

These are species not already growing in a place that have been introduced by humans.

Planting, this means humans supplanted trees rather than them growing naturally.

Pause the video now to do this task with your partner.

Welcome back.

You did such a great job at sharing facts about the different types of woodland and I really enjoyed listening to you.

Let's take a look at some examples of what I had.

For facts about semi-natural ancient woodland, we have this is a woodland of native trees that have had cover for over 400 years with no obvious planting.

For replanted ancient woodland, older trees have been removed and different trees planted, usually, non-native trees.

And for a recent plantation woodland.

Recently planted woods or forests are not ancient.

They are usually managed by private landowners or the forestry commission.

Well done if you remembered all of those different facts about the different types of woodland.

It's now time for the second part of our lesson.

How can maps help to identify trees? Now that we understand some of the different types of woodland in the UK, we can try to identify them using maps, but we will need to become map detectives to do this.

Maps provide a range of clues that can give us information about how land is and has been managed.

Clues can tell us if woodland is ancient or recently planted.

Many but not all ancient woodlands have been mapped and each country in the UK maintains an ancient woodland inventory.

You might want to explore one of these on the Natural England website after the lesson, but first, we need to become map detectives.

The clues that we will be looking at to help us are name evidence, boundary evidence, and map symbol evidence.

Let's begin with name evidence.

On maps, woodland is often named and these names are a useful first clue.

When ancient woodlands appear on maps, you will see names like copse, coppice or copy.

For example, here is a map of some ancient woods near Woodbury in Hertfordshire.

We can sees Sallow Copse, Old Copse and Rail Copse.

These are names that are associated with traditional woodland management.

This is where trees are cut to the base of their trunk but to regrow as several pole like trunks.

This is called coppice woodland and is used to produce poles for fences, tools, and charcoal.

You can see this has happened where a tree has thin trunks or poles at its base.

Ancient woodland may also have a name taken from an old name for wood.

For example, grove holt, hanger, lea or hurst.

Like Grove Wood seen here on this map.

Ancient woodland could also have names associated with the name of a nearby parish or farmstead.

This shows it is of ancient origin like this ancient replanted wood at Leybourne in Kent.

Mediaeval woods were often named after the parish in which they lay or a nearby settlement.

Ancient woodland could also be named after trees, especially native trees such as wild service tree, also known as the checker tree.

Or lime, holly, or willow.

Here is an example with Willow Woods.

But take care because not all woodlands with tree names are old.

More recent plantations can be named after battles or celebrations.

For example, Waterloo or Jubilee plantation.

These are unlikely to be ancient.

Like these here in Northumberland.

More recent plantations will also use the term "inclosure" for wooded areas.

Here is an example of this in the new forest.

Slufters Inclosure.

Inclosure to restrict deer and stock from browsing tree seedlings dates to the early 18th century and onwards through acts of parliament that permitted the creation of permanent woodlands.

More recent plantations will also use the term "inclosure" for wooded areas.

Here is an example of this in the new forest.

Slufters Inclosure.

Inclosure, to restrict deer and stock from browsing tree seedlings dates to the early 18th century and onwards through acts of parliament that's permitted the creation of permanent woodlands.

Let's check your understanding.

Which of these names would suggest ancient woodland, A, Sallow Copse, B, Jubilee Plantation, C, Grove Wood, D, Willow Wood.

Pause the video and select the correct answers.

The answers are A, C and D.

Well done.

Copse is associated with woodland management and coppicing.

So A is ancient.

Grove is an old word for wood, so C is ancient.

And D is named after a tree, so that too could be ancient.

B is called a plantation and is named after a celebration, so this is modern, not ancient.

Let's now take a look at boundary evidence.

Ancient woodland might be seen on maps as having a winding, twisting, or irregular boundary without any straight internal boundaries.

The boundary might also follow a parish boundary like soot wood shown on this map stopping at the parish boundary.

Or ancient woods might sit awkwardly amongst surrounding fields.

That means they may not follow the straight edges of fields and they might not line up with other straight line boundaries in nearby fields.

You could also spot some ancient woodland if it is situated on steep slopes or along river or stream valleys.

Farmers do not like steep slopes and wet boggy sites full of bends, so left these as woodland in the past.

Ancient woodland may also be sighted next to common land or heath.

More recent plantations will have a shape that blends in with surrounding fields and enclosures, which may be the result of regrowth of neglected pasture.

And more recent plantations will also have straight outlines.

Tree symbols are also useful in distinguishing semi-natural ancient woodlands dominated by broadleaf trees from conifer plantations.

At the most basic level, if the woodland shown on the map is full of broadleaf trees labelled as nonferrous woodland in the map key, it is likely to be ancient, but if it contains mainly conifers, fir trees, it is more likely to be recent, a plantation.

Although we need to be careful if we see the coniferous symbol as this could be replanted ancient woodland if there was other evidence.

Let's take a look at these symbols now.

We have coniferous wood.

Non-coniferous woods, and orchard.

If you see these symbols on a map, this is the type of trees that make up the majority of woodland.

Let's check your understanding.

Let's see if you can put all of the learning together now.

Which of the following are ancient woodlands? The Pines, Oakwood, Upton Wood, Grove Wood, or Victoria Plantation.

Apply all of your detective skills to solve this check for understanding.

Pause the video and do this now.

Let's take a look at the answers together.

So Oakwood is an ancient wood because it is an irregular shape and it is named after a tree.

It is also next to a Rough Common and is bordered by a parish boundary.

Upton Wood is also ancient.

It is named after a local settlement, follows the path of a river or stream and has an irregular shape.

Grove Wood is also an ancient wood.

It is named after an old name for wood, is irregular in shape and lies next to a Rough Common.

The Pines is not ancient.

Its name suggests that it is coniferous and it has a regular shape and boundaries suggesting that humans have planted it rather than it's growing naturally.

And Victoria Plantation is also not ancient.

Its name suggests it has been planted rather than being an ancient wood and it has straight internal paths and regular shape boundaries.

Well done for demonstrating your understanding of how different types of woodland appear on maps.

For your last task today, I would like you to use an OS map of your local area and complete the following table to help identify areas of ancient woodland near to where you live.

Once you find a wood or forest on your map, you can complete the first column.

Write down the name of the woodland and the four-figure grid reference where you found it.

Remember to read the numbers along the corridor first, then the numbers up the site.

Then think carefully about the name of the wood, jotting down what you notice in the next column, name evidence.

Use the shape of the boundary and the location of the woodland to write down some notes in the third column.

Then use any mapping symbols to complete the mapping symbol evidence column.

After doing all of this, you should have enough information to decide if the woodland is ancient or a recent plantation.

Repeat this process for three different woodlands in total.

Remember, if the woodland shown on the map is irregular in shape, lots of twists and turns and is full of broadleaf trees labelled as non-coniferous woodland in the map key, it is likely to be ancient.

But if it is very regular in shape, straight boundaries and paths with conifers, fir trees, it is more likely to be a recent woodland, a plantation.

I am going to use this map of Mitford in Northumberland as my example.

Good luck, map detectives.

Let's see how you get on.

Pause the video and do the task now.

Welcome back.

How did you get on with your map detective task? I looked carefully at three words on my map from Northumberland and found that one was probably a recent plantation and two were possibly ancient woodland.

I can check this using Natural England Open Data Publication on Ancient Woodland.

I wonder if you found any ancient woodlands near to you.

Have you been there before? If not, maybe you could visit now that we know how rare and important these sites are.

We've now come to the end of our lesson.

Today, you have learned that maps provide a range of clues that can give us information about how land is and has been managed.

You've learned that tree symbols on maps are also useful in distinguishing broadleaf trees from conifer plantations.

And you've learned that semi-natural ancient woodlands are of high ecological and heritage value.

Thank you for all of your hard work today and I hope you thoroughly enjoyed being map detectives.