West of England Woodland Opportunity Study

Ancient woodland – Woodland evidenced to have had continuous woodland cover since at least 1600 AD and has only been cleared for underwood or timber production. It is an extremely valuable ecological resource, with an exceptionally high diversity of flora and fauna.

Ancient Semi-Natural Woodland (ASNW) – Semi-natural woodland stands on ancient woodland sites.

Arable – Land used for growing crops.

Biodiversity – The measure of the variety of organisms present in different ecosystems.

Carr woodland – wet woodlands that are inundated with water for all or part of the year, typically dominated by willow, alder, and birch.

Common/ common land – An area privately owned land with rights for public use, such as for recreational access and livestock grazing.

Conservation Area – A designated area of special architectural or historic interest.

Coppice – An area of woodland in which the trees or shrubs are periodically cut back to ground level to stimulate growth and provide firewood or timber.

Copse – A small group of trees.

CNL – Cotswolds National Landscape – a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB); a statutory national landscape designation.

Grassland – Land used for grazing. Grassland can be improved (by management practices) semi-improved (modified by management practices and have a range of species less diverse than unimproved grasslands), or unimproved (not treated with fertiliser, herbicide or intensively grazed and consequently species diversity is high).

Landscape character – A distinct pattern or combination of elements that occurs consistently in a particular landscape.

Listed Building – A building, object or structure that has been judged to be of national importance in terms of architectural or historic interest.

LNR – Local Nature Reserve.

Lynchet (also referred to as ‘strip lynchets’) – Ancient field patterns comprising earth terraces sloping agricultural land, arising from long term agricultural use. Also known as strip lynchets.

NFI – National Forest Inventory.

PAWS – Plantation on Ancient Woodland Sites – Former Ancient Semi-Natural Woodlands (ASNW) that have been replanted with native or non-native species.

Pastoral – Land used for grazing livestock, typically sheep or cattle.

Pollard – A tree with its top branches cut back to the trunk, to encourage growth of new shoots.

PRoW – Public Right of Way.

Rhyne/rhine – A regional term for drainage ditches typically found in wetland areas. An early method of draining wet, marshy land in order to use it for pasture.

RIGS – Regionally Important Geological Site.

RPG – Registered Park and Garden.

SAC – Special Area for Conservation.

Scheduled Monument – Nationally important archaeological sites or historic buildings, given protection against unauthorised change.

SNCI – Site of Nature Conservation Interest, locally designated for substantive nature conservation and geological value.

Spinney – a small wood, often with undergrowth.

SSSI – Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Time depth – The time period expressed in the landscape, or the extent to which the landscape reflects a certain time period (a landscape with greater time depth will comprise older elements than a landscape with lesser time depth).

Topography – Combinations of slope and elevation that produce the shape and form of the land surface.

UKFS – UK Forestry Standard – The standard for the planning, design and sustainable management of forests and woodland in the UK.

Warth – A regional term for the salt marshes found along the edge of the Severn Estuary.

Withy Bed – A regional term for an area where willow is grown for coppicing.