The Woodland Trust is proud of the fact that nearly all our woods are open to the public but our primary aim, is to protect them for their value as wildlife habitats and we are sometimes faced with difficult decisions regarding how we manage public access.
Restrictions
A handful of Trust sites, and occasionally areas within sites, are not open for public access because of exceptional circumstances, including public safety concerns, donor wishes, the presence of sensitive wildlife and topography. The decision to close woods will always be made in the light of any relevant legislation.
Wildlife
In certain circumstances the conservation and wildlife value of a site may be compromised by certain user groups, such as walkers with dogs, horse riders and bike riders; in these cases we believe that the recreational benefits should not override the ecological sensitivity of the woodland and may choose to route users away from sensitive areas, impose other restrictions or in extreme cases close the wood altogether.
Neighbours
Not all of our neighbouring landowners operate the same access policy as we do. We seek to respect the needs of farmers and other interests within the countryside who make their living from the land especially at lambing time, harvest time and other land management operations.
We will therefore work with neighbours to try to resolve any genuine difficulties created as a result of having a neighbouring Woodland Trust site open to the public.
Anti-social behaviour
Inevitably, a few of those who visit our woods do so with antisocial practices in mind - such as flytipping which costs the Trust a considerable amount of money each year to deal with, money that would otherwise go towards woodland conservation.
To provide a permanent staff presence, even in a small number of our woods, to deter such behaviour would be unworkable, yet to take no action would be to undermine the principle of encouraging visitors to enjoy the experience of visiting a our woods.
Our policy is to work closely with local people, local police and local crime prevention schemes and where possible to foster a sense of community pride, ownership and use of the sites to deter those who seek to pursue anti-social activities.