Freeholders' Wood inWensleydale
Woodland is a scarce yet important component of the Dales landscape. Woodland has been cleared for a variety of purposes since the last Ice Age resulting in the current low cover in the Dales. Semi-natural woodlands are now very scarce in the National Park and account for only 1 % of the Dales area. They tend to have little structural diversity and a limited variety of ground-flora species. Many are very small in size and have been modified for many centuries through clearance, heavy stock grazing or re-planting with non-native species. Semi-natural ancient woodlands dominated by self-sown native species are the most important types of woodland for biodiversity conservation. Other woodland types in the Dales include broad-leaved and mixed plantations which are generally small shelter belts dominated by sycamore, beech and larch. Large conifer plantations are present in some areas of the National Park and may be important for red squirrel conservation in the west around Sedbergh, Garsdale, Hawes and Widdale.
Upland mixed ashwoods
Ash woodland is the most abundant and widespread type of woodland in the National Park The Yorkshire Dales ashwoods are strongly associated with base-rich soils and are therefore typical of the limestone country. The Yorkshire Dales lies in a region where the southern, lowland and northern, upland ash woodlands overlap.
Wet woods
Wet woodland occurs on poorly drained or seasonally wet soils, usually with alder, birch and willow as the predominant tree species. Wet woods frequently occur as mosaics with other woodland types and with open habitats such as fens.
Upland oakwoods
Upland oakwoods are rare in the Yorkshire Dales National Park possibly as a result of previous felling. Many of them have ground flora and shrub layers typical of oakwoods but oak trees are no longer present due to felling.
Scrub
Scrub habitats are extremely rare in the Yorkshire Dales. Small and scattered examples dominated by hawthorn occur on steep gill sides. On deeper soils hazel becomes dominant. There is also a limited amount of juniper scrub.
Other semi-natural ancient woodland
There are few other native broad-leaved woodland types in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. A good example of which is Freeholders' Wood in Wensleydale.
Wood pasture and parkland
One or two areas of the Park are former parkland landscapes with mature trees which given time will grow to be important invertebrate sites.
Non-native broad-leaved and mixed plantations
A lot of the remaining broadleaved woodland in the Dales are plantations with sycamore, beech and lime.
Coniferous plantations
Large areas of commercial conifer plantations occur across the Dales.
