In spring 2025, ECT awarded Andrew Hacket-Pain (University of Liverpool), representing a team of researchers from Liverpool and Bangor Universities a small grant to fund a 2025 resurvey of the long-term monitoring plots in Lady Park Wood, co-funded by our grants scheme partner Ramble Worldwide Outdoor Trust. The first phase of that fieldwork is now complete, and we invited Andrew to write about the teams 2025 fieldwork experience at the site.

Lady Park Wood is a diverse mixed woodland located in the gorge of the River Wye on the boundary between Wales and England. Formerly a coppice wood yielding charcoal for the iron industry, the 36-hectare wood has been completely unmanaged since 1944 and is designated as a National Nature Reserve overseen by the Forestry Commission, Natural England and Natural Resources Wales. Some parts of the wood have remained largely unmanaged by people since 1870, except for some light thinning in 1902 representing >150 years of woodland development dominated by “natural processes”. In effect, this is a very-long-term woodland rewilding experiment where interpretation is aided by paired permanent plots in an adjacent woodland that has undergone regular management with heavy thinning in 1984 and 1994.

The first sample plots at Lady Park Wood were established in 1945 by Eustace Jones, and the growth, death, and recruitment of individuals has now been monitored for >80 years. Many individual trees survive from the first survey, but the long-term record has revealed a story of gradual woodland change punctuated by episodes of disturbance and reorganisation. The arrival of Dutch elm disease, the 1976 drought, the more recent arrival of ash dieback disease, and a dramatic increase in local deer density have all changed the species composition and dynamics of the woodland, as revealed by these exceptional long-term records. A huge asset for research in this site is the compilation and synthesis of an incredible breadth and depth of historical and scientific evidence of the woodland stretching back into previous centuries. This includes the key findings from the resurvey of the sample plots in the landmark book of Peterken and Mountford (2017). Detailed monitoring of the recent effects of ash dieback disease was supported by the ECT, and the implications for management of woodland nature reserves reported by Peterken et al. (2024).

This spring marked the “handover” of stewardship for long-term monitoring from George Peterken to our Liverpool-Bangor team, marked by the start of work to remeasure and secure all the permanent sample plots arranged as long transects. After George provided an inspirational introduction to the wood and the insights that have come from its long-term study, the first job was locating the transects. That included those positioned below the high limestone cliffs of the gorge; something of a “lost world” of boulders, decaying deadwood and ancient trees. George was extremely patient as we slowly orientated ourselves, gained confidence and understanding of the previous survey methods, and gradually at first started to fill in datasheets. In large part due to the efforts of an amazing group of PhD and MSc students from the two universities, the team quickly gained momentum, and we completed the resurvey of around half of the plots – an excellent start.

Photo credits from left to right: Credit: Andrew Hacket Pain, Belen Fadrique, Andrew Hacket Pain, Andrew Hacket Pain

Conclusions will follow from analysis of the resulting datasets, but at this stage we can share initial observations. The pace of work achieved by the teams was impressive. But so high was the rate of mortality that reconciling the previous maps of the plots with the trees that were still alive was painstaking work. This illustrates just how many individuals have been lost from the wood in the last decade or so, particularly large dominant trees and the younger cohort of saplings. The latter group should have represented the future of the wood. In addition to those losses of existing trees and saplings, we hardly added any new recruits to the survey (saplings growing up to 1.3m in height, the minimum size threshold for recording). Apart from sprouts on the trunks of some of the uprooted trees, especially lime, new recruits were almost completely absent, whether under the tree canopy or in the increasing number and size of tree fall gaps. It already seems clear that the tree component of the woodland (which defines its structure and characteristics as a habitat) is undergoing a very rapid trajectory of change. Characterising and understanding these changes – and the extent to which they represent a transition in the nature of the wood – will be a primary focus of the next phase of research at Lady Park Wood. How much of this change is due to successional woodland development? What role has drought and disease played? And to what extent can the widespread regeneration failure be blamed on deer? Assigning causation will require careful analysis of the data, but the likelihood that deer browsing pressure is responsible for the regeneration failure seems very high.

This field campaign represented the first step in a new phase of research at Lady Park Wood. The Liverpool-Bangor team have exciting broader research plans to investigate woodland development. This includes regeneration processes, and the short- and long-term impacts of disturbance – all building on the exceptional long-term record. More broadly, Lady Park Wood will continue to offer a “gold standard” baseline study system to understand responses of woodland to future drivers, including extreme events. The team are enthusiastic to facilitate use of the site and its long-term records by the wider scientific community. The photographs that accompany this article show some of the diversity of tree species and stand structure, the exceptional deadwood component of the wood, and a well-documented (though now severely depleted) ground flora.

Lady Park Wood has some of the longest intensive monitoring records of any woodland in the UK, or indeed of any wood anywhere in the world. It is enormous privilege for the Liverpool-Bangor team to take on responsibility for the scientific monitoring of this incredible site, with the support of the ECT. We are excited to build on the efforts and ecological insights of a pantheon of amazing researchers who have committed to this special place over multiple decades.

Peterken, G., Cracknell, D., Beamish, C. & Healey, J. (2024). Ash dieback in woodland nature reserves. British Wildlife 35, 429-435.

Peterken, G., & Mountford, E. (2017). Woodland development: A long-term study of Lady Park Wood. CABI International.

LPW Handover