Interim best practice guidance for conservation translocations.
This report sets out best practice for translocating woodland plants into planted broadleaved woodland in situations where this is unlikely to happen by natural colonisation. Woodlands established on arable land and improved pasture often develop ground flora communities typical of disturbed land that lack a woodland character, and are dominated by grass and agricultural weeds. It should however be noted that some agricultural weeds found in planted woods, such as thistles, buttercups and willowherbs, are often important for pollinators in otherwise floristically poor woodlands. In isolated woods, these vegetation communities can be very persistent.
Whilst these woods may acquire a few woodland species by natural colonisation, they generally fail to acquire authentic woodland plant communities. One means of addressing this is via targeted conservation translocations of plants that are missing from the woodland and surrounding areas. A few pioneering practitioners, mainly in England, have carried this out, and this report draws on a review of the evidence from their work. Our current state of knowledge is not sufficient to provide detailed prescriptions with guaranteed outcomes, but the basic approaches and principles are now clear enough that they can underpin broad guidance.
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