Ancient Woodland Indicators (AWI's) and the Honeysuckle
An ancient woodland is one which has been continually wooded since around 1600AD in England and Wales, and since 1750 in Scotland. The biodiversity value of ancient woodland is extremely high, due to the plethora of different species that thrive amongst it. Ancient woodlands may be identified using historic maps, church archives and the doomsday book, as well as the species that call it home. In the UK, ancient woodland is found in fragments and it is not as widely distributed as it used to be, due to the historical use of timber in ship-building and deforestation to make way for pasture and arable land. However, there remains small patches of ancient woodland in the UK even now, and we can use the occurrence of certain species, called ancient woodland indicators (AWI's), to locate and certify these areas ancient woodland status. There are over 200 plant AWI's in Britain. These AWI's act as biological indicators, meaning their presence or absence in a habitat indicates en...
