Woodlands of the Ormesby to Wilton areas, N.E. Yorkshire: some observations on their terrestrial molluscs and flora

摘要

The Nature Conservancy Council (now Natural England) produced a series of inventories of ancient semi-natural woodland during the late 20th century. One of these covered the Cleveland area of north-east Yorkshire (Cooke, 1987), i.e. the administrativecounty that existed between 1974 and 1996. Ancient semi-natural woodlands are defined as those which have had a continuous tree cover since at least 1600 AD, although probably for much longer, and now bear stands of trees which are not obviously planted. In contrast, tree plantations established on previously cleared land are termed secondary woodlands, many having their origins in the 18th and 19th centuries as cover for game. Inevitably this division of woodlands into two categories is somewhat simplistic. Nonetheless, the compilation of ancient semi-natural woodland inventories was of considerable value from a conservation viewpoint because these are likely to be of higher biodiversity than woods of a more recent origin. At the time of their production the inventories were envisaged as provisional documents. They