Wood Pasture and Parkland: Britain’s Wildlife Sanctuaries

Walk across many parts of the British countryside and you’re likely to spot widely spaced oaks, an avenue of veteran beech trees, or a patchwork of pasture, thorny scrub and ancient trees on an old common.

These are wood pastures and parklands: landscapes shaped by centuries of grazing livestock, pollarding and human stewardship, and they’re among the country’s most biodiverse, but often under-appreciated habitats.

This article explains the history of wood pasture and parkland and why they punch above their weight for wildlife; where to see them in the UK, how government policy and funding relate to them, and how they can be preserved for the next century.

What is Wood Pasture and Parkland?

Wood pasture, parkland and wooded commons comprise mosaic habitats where open areas of grassland, scrub and isolated or small areas of mature trees exist together, usually because of long-term grazing or park management such as pollarding and deer stewardship. These open grown trees, planted at low densities, are often ancient and veteran trees, carrying features such as rot holes, dead wood and hollow trunks that support a host of specialist species.

As the Woodland Trust explains, these sites often contain trees that were pollarded – cut at a height to allow grazing below and growth of timber or firewood above – creating long-lived trees with rich deadwood habitats. Those features make wood pasture and parkland especially valuable for saproxylic (dead-wood-dependent) beetles, fungi, cavity-nesting birds and lichens.

The conservation charity People’s Trust for Endangered Species notes that wood pastures can be derived from royal forests, commons, estate parklands and medieval deer parks: they contain some of Britain’s oldest living trees and therefore act as vital habitat refuges for threatened species.

Why Wood Pasture matters for Nature

Wood pasture and parkland are ecological powerhouses for several reasons:

• Individual trees: Ancient and veteran trees host rare lichens, mosses, fungi, roosting bats, beetles and birds. These microhabitats – rot holes, decaying wood, bark crevices and hollow trunks – form an ecological “library” of species not found elsewhere.
• Habitat mosaics: The mix of grazed grass, scrub and open trees supports a wider range of species than woodland with closed tree canopies or intensively managed pasture alone. Many ground-nesting birds, invertebrates and plants benefit from the sunlit patches and structural variety.
• Cultural continuity and low intervention: The long continuity of traditional management; the practice of `commoning’, where Commoners (local people) occupy property which gives them rights to graze animals in protected areas, and occasional pollarding, has created ecological stability. Where that continuity is lost, rare species often decline.

Examples of thriving Wood Pasture, Parkland and Open Grassland

Several UK sites demonstrate the form and value of this habitat:

• The New Forest (Hampshire): One of the largest surviving wood-pasture systems in Britain, the New Forest retains the practice of `commoning’ which helps maintain open pasture with scattered old trees and supports a rich variety of breeding birds and invertebrates.
• Knepp Estate (West Sussex): While Knepp is best known as a rewilding success, its management deliberately encourages a wood-pasture landscape, with newly planted trees and free-roaming grazing livestock creating a mosaic of scrub, grassland and open trees. Rare species such as nightingales, turtle doves and white storks have benefited from the habitat diversity. Knepp’s approach to natural regeneration shows how reintroducing natural processes can recreate wood pasture structure at scale.
• Savernake Forest (Wiltshire): A surviving example of long-continuity wood pasture with veteran oaks and associated specialist species; many of its trees pre-date the Norman Conquest. Wiltshire’s landscape character documents highlight wood pasture remnants such as Savernake and Salisbury Plain as important biodiversity reservoirs.
• Historic parklands on National Trust properties: Landscapes such as Killerton, Saltram and Arlington in Devon retain elements of historic parkland, open grassland and ancient trees that support diverse wildlife. These sites combine cultural heritage with biodiversity value.

The Policy Picture: Priority Habitat and Funding Opportunities

Wood pasture and parkland are recognised as a priority habitat in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan and are mapped across England by Natural England. That status matters, because it qualifies the habitat for targeted management options and funding under newer agri-environment schemes.

Natural England provides a wood pasture  mapping dataset, and recent grant options (e.g., Countryside Stewardship actions) explicitly support managing and restoring wood pasture and parkland and planting new trees.

In September 2025, DEFRA published relevant actions for managing wood pasture and parkland (CWD22), specifying eligibility and guidance for land managers who want funding to restore and maintain these open grassland habitats. This shows government is increasingly willing to back practical action on wooden commons, ancient trees and parkland restoration.

But recognition stops short of easy solutions. As the Joint Nature Conservation Committee and other bodies have stressed, protecting wood pasture requires long-term stewardship: pollarding cycles for planted trees, regimes for grazing animals and protection of old trees, commitments that stretch well beyond short funding rounds.

Practical Management: how Wood Pasture is Maintained and Restored

Maintaining or recreating open areas of wood pasture involves a mix of traditional skills and modern ecological planning:

• Appropriate grazing regimes: Light, year-round grazing by cattle, ponies or native breeds keeps grass sward open, prevents scrub from closing the canopy and helps maintain conditions for ground flora and invertebrates. Commoning systems (as in the New Forest) are ideal but other models – farmed estates or rewilding grazers – can deliver similar natural regeneration outcomes.
• Veteran-tree management: Pollarding, crown reduction and fencing to protect trees and tree roots can prolong tree lifespans and limit damage from grazing livestock or vehicles. Veteran and ancient trees need bespoke management plans because their ecological value depends on retaining dead and decaying wood and old growth features.
• Creating next-generation trees: Planting individual trees (oaks, limes, crab apples) with space to develop into long-standing trees is a long-term investment – one the Knepp team heavily emphasises, planting new trees as future veterans.
• Mosaic management: Allowing thorny scrub patches, open habitats, bare ground, sheltered groves and grassland to sit together creates niches for ground beetles, saproxylic invertebrates and ground-nesting birds. Habitat mosaics are central to wood-pasture biodiversity.

A practical toolkit published for Wales and other regions sets out steps for creating wood pasture systems, from fencing to protect new young trees and plans to suit grazing needs, to care of ancient and veteran trees and community engagement. These guides are useful references for landowners wishing to restore parkland character in an ecologically sensitive way.

Success Stories – what’s working on the ground

Knepp is the headline success story: a former intensive farm turned rewilding estate that now exhibits many attributes of a functioning wood-pasture landscape. Its free-roaming grazing animals and minimal interference have created a dynamic mosaic attracting rare species and demonstrating how process-led restoration can recreate lost wood-pasture and open grassland features at scale. Knepp’s experience underlines that process (grazing, natural regeneration) often matters more than strict planting targets.

At Savernake Forest, longstanding coppicing, pollarding and low-intensity use have helped preserve ancient oaks that support rare beetles and lichens. Local stewardship and protective designations have kept the area’s old trees intact for centuries.

Where traditional practices have lapsed, targeted interventions are showing good returns. Countryside Stewardship grants (CWD22 and similar) enable landowners to restore veteran-tree management, reintroduce grazing regimes and create buffer zones that protect tree roots while allowing public access. These projects are small-scale, but together they build high levels of resilience across landscapes.

The Threats: Why Wood Pasture still Needs Help

Despite their value, wood pasture and parkland face urgent threats:

• Decline of traditional management: Pollarding skills are fading, and commoning is declining. Without active management, open trees are shaded out as scrub and woodland close in.
• Loss and fragmentation: Historic estates are subdivided, and parklands are sold, developed or converted. Veteran trees should be identified in early site surveys and their lifespans factored into planning consent conditions. Development pressure near veteran trees can compact soils and damage roots, accelerating decline.
• Time lag and succession: Recreating wood pasture is slow: new open-grown oaks become veteran trees over centuries. That makes long-term planning, protection and interim habitat provision (such as leaving deadwood) essential.
• Climate change and pests: Drought, extreme weather and pests (including ash dieback) threaten the species mix and structure of parklands and open habitats. Adaptive management – choosing resilient species and protecting genetic diversity – will be needed.

Stewarding Historic Landscapes: a Slow-Growing Legacy

Wood pasture and parkland are ancient, complex and slow to regenerate, but they’re also flexible and astonishingly productive for wildlife when given the right conditions. They remind us that conservation isn’t only about creating new woods or reserves; it’s also about looking after the living history in our fields and parks, ancient and veteran trees, grazed areas and the species that depend on continuity.

The value of wood pasture and parkland habitat is both ecological and cultural, and the most successful interventions often combine long-term vision with adaptive, process-led management.

The policy signals and funding streams emerging today provide a chance to repair lost management and plant for future generations. But that work must be patient, place-based, and supported by long-term stewardship: the next generation of veteran oaks are being planted today, and they’ll need people committed to their care for centuries to come.