Tree Planting Landscape and Archaeology
Planting New Woodlands: Protecting Archaeology and Landscape Character
Planting new woodlands has become an important way for communities across Suffolk to come together and enhance their local environment. This work has made a real active and meaningful contribution to nature conservation, and created important new areas of accessible countryside. There have been 26 projects undertaken since 1996, throughout the county. These schemes have brought people together and provided a focus for conservation work, which has often led to further community participation in other local environmental and social projects.
However, woodland has a particular place in the landscape. So this guidance has been prepared to highlight the areas in which, without careful planning and thought, woodland planting schemes can come into conflict with the protection and maintenance of historic landscape features, archaeological resources and the maintenance of local landscape distinctiveness. These are all features of the countryside that should be passed to future generations in the best possible condition, and with care and consideration these legacies of the past can be maintained and enhanced by planting for the future.
Landscape Character
The location scale and style of woodland planting is a very important part of the local distinctiveness of landscapes across Suffolk. Inappropriate planting can erode this sense of place and undermine the local historic character of the landscape. Furthermore, the inappropriate siting of new woodland may have a negative effect on important views of local landmarks, or the setting of distinctive or designed landscape features. Therefore planting proposals should be mindful of four key issues:
1 Is the woodland in the right location for the wider landscape?
2 Is the scale and shape of the proposed woodland in keeping with that of other local woodlands?
3 Is the woodland in a location that will enhance the local landscape or, will it compromise the setting or views of churches other listed buildings or villages?
4 Is the planting of a woodland going to obscure or degrade historic landscape features? Such as:
- Parklands and designed landscapes
- Streamside meadows or small fields
- Green lanes
- Meadows or orchards in or around villages
- The open aspect of village greens or, the enclosed meadowland remnants of village greens
Archaeology
Planting trees on archaeological sites may destroy valuable historical materials and destroy the context of the material within the soil. As a result important information will be lost to future generations. Furthermore, Ancient Woodland sites are in themselves archaeological features, which often have within and around them systems of earthworks.
Therefore planting proposals should be mindful of two issues:
1 Is the proposed site adjacent to an important archaeological site, (including existing Ancient Woodland)?
- Planting proposals next to existing Ancient Woodland should respect the historical extent and form of the woodland wherever possible.
- Planting proposals next to buried archaeology may need to have an unplanted buffer zone; this can usually be accommodated within the woodland design.
2 Is the proposed planting on a site of known buried archaeology?
- Planting proposals that could damage archaeological features will not receive funding from the Forestry Commission's (FC) England Woodland Grant Scheme (EWGS).
- It may still be possible to plant sites such as these if the design of the planting can be modified to accommodate the archaeological materials.
To help answer these questions and inform your thinking about your community woodland scheme contact Suffolk County Council and we can help you by providing information to enhance and maintain the local distinctiveness of our landscape, as well as maintaining our county's archaeological heritage.
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