Provisional wood-pasture and parkland inventory created during the Natural England Wood-pasture and Parkland Inventory update.
Wood pastures and parkland are the products of historic land management systems and designed landscapes, and represent a vegetation structure rather than a particular plant community. Typically, this structure consists of large, open-grown or high forest trees (often pollards) at various densities, in a matrix of grazed grassland, heathland and/or woodland floras. They have been managed by a long-established tradition of grazing, allowing the survival of multiple generations of trees, characteristically with at least some veteran trees or shrubs (Bergmeier et al 2010). They frequently represent the best sites in England for old-growth features and deadwood, supporting a wide range of specialist fungi and invertebrate species (Webb, Drewitt & Measures 2011)
More information about wood-pasture and parkland can be found at publications.naturalengland.org.uk/file/5037343744458752 and http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/pdf/UKBAP_BAPHabitats-65-WoodPastureParkland2011.pdfFull metadata can be viewed on data.gov.uk.