and neighbouring districts in East Sussex and Kent.
Contact: Philip Sansum, Ancient Woodland and Survey Mapping Officer
Partners: Natural England, Forestry Commission, Wealden District Council, Mid Sussex District Council, Ashford Borough Council, Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council, Rother District Council, The Woodland Trust, East Sussex County Council, West Sussex County Council, High Weald AONB Unit, Sussex Wildlife Trust and Sussex Biological Records Centre, INTERREG IIIb under the Lifescape Your Landscape Programme.
Timescale: Wealden District: start February 2004, completed March 2006. Mid Sussex District: start October 2005, completed October 2006. Tunbridge Wells Borough: start 2006, completed October 2007. Ashford Borough: start 2007, completed December 2008. Rother Distrct: start November 2007, to be completed December 2009. Hastings Borough: start November 2007, to be completed December 2009. Tonbridge & Malling Borough: start November 2007, to be completed November 2009.
The revision involves updating and enhancing the inventory to match recent developments in computer mapping techniques and the availability of digital evidence sources. The advantages of this are an increased level of detail and accuracy in the dataset and, importantly, the addition of the many small woods - a key component of the ancient woodland (AW) resource - which were generally not included in the original inventories. GIS based work underpins a programme of archival research and field survey to provide a robust evidence base upon which to assign ancient woodland status (both for newly added sites and those already designated as AW). The Weald Ancient Woodland survey was initially set up as a pilot project in Wealden District and has since evolved, with the establishment of a sister project in 2007 based at the Sussex Biological Records Centre covering West Sussex, to become the Weald & Downs Ancient Woodland Survey. A complete revision of three local authority areas has now been achieved (Wealden, Mid Sussex and Tunbridge Wells) and work is currently underway on three more local authority areas of the High Weald AONB in Kent and East Sussex.
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