While establishing new tree cover is relatively straightforward, restoring the associated assemblage of classic woodland wildlife appears to pose a greater challenge. In the latest contribution to BW's Wilding for Conservation series, George F. Peterken and Keith J. Kirby outline what we can expect from the field layer of new ‘rewilded’ woods based on lessons from long-term studies on the development of new woodlands.
Neale Holmes-Smith noted in a recent letter (BW 35: 233) that current discussion of rewilding and afforestation has largely ignored the field layer of new woodland. The implication was that in creating extensive new woodland, whether by planting or through natural colonisation, we should be thinking about creating whole ecosystems with a wide range of fauna, flora and fungi.