managing SSSI woodland

[RMash]

Hi - I'm a new member and have a query about owning SSSI woodland. I am considering buying a wood part of which forms part of an SSSI and wondered what experience others have had of gaining permission to carry out activities in an SSSI from English Nature? For this particular wood there seems to be a ban on doing more or less anything without permission (perhaps typical?). I appreciate one would need a felling licence to fell trees anyway (save within tolerances) and it may be that the SSSI restrictions are not applied in too onerous a manner, but any views appreciated. I will also be contacting English Nature of course. many thanks! Richard

[SimonFisher]

Hi Richard and welcome to the forum.

I know little about how SSSI designation affects how you manage a woodland, but are there any useful resources here that you haven't yet seen?

http://www.woodlands.co.uk/owning-a-wood/sites-of-special-scientific-interest/

https://designatedsites.naturalengland.org.uk/SiteSearch.aspx

I, and likely other forum members too will be interested in whether you decide to purchase based on what you find out and how it affects what you do with it after that.

Simon

[RMash]

Simon

Many thanks - that's really helpful. Am aiming to talk with English Nature during the week, which should hopefully shed some light, and will post my findings!

Richard

[Wendelspanswick]

The majority of our land is covered by a SSSI, we have found it has impacted very little on our activities. Although though the SSSI applies to our woodland and meadow the specifics of it concern the acid grassland.
Basically I write down my plans for the land for the foreseeable future and send it off to English Nature.
If there is anything they are concerned with they get in touch, but so far they haven't objected to anything. I think if we said we were going to do something drastic like plough up the meadow and plant maize they would put a stop to it but they seem amenable to sensible activities.
The SSSI condition report for our land when we bought it was classed as Poor-Declining and we are aiming to get that changed at the next report by removing the encroaching bracken and gorse.

[Meadowcopse]

Do you know the SSSI number and its restrictions and condition?

If not, you can search for the number and description on magic map http://magic.defra.gov.uk/Login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fMagicMap.aspx
using the appropriate layer mask

From this you can look up the SSSI name / number and latest conditions and report via Natural England https://designatedsites.naturalengland.org.uk/SiteSearch.aspx

I'm next to, but not within a SSSI - the neighbour has about 24 pages of conditions...

[Wendelspanswick]

The list of conditions concerning a SSSI are not prohibited, but you need to inform English Nature if your activities affect the conditions.
They tend to blanket list all the conditions for a SSSI but in fact they are only concerned with a small minority of them.
Ours lists, among others, removing timber and cutting hedges etc but English Nature aren't concerned with those on our land as it is only the acid grassland that they are aiming to protect.

[Binz]

part of ours is SSSI and when we had Forestry Commission guy out to advise us he said all we need to do is write to Natural England when we are planning on coppicing it. Looking at the SSSI info for the woods it says coppice is how they want it to be managed so it should just be a formality to check we aren't doing anything daft.