Assessing your Woodland's Condition

This straightforward assessment is for sites with no statutory designation (e.g. not designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest) and involves doing a walking survey through your wood and using a simple form to record features along your route. You can then compare your results to the classification thresholds’.

Note classification thresholds (good, moderate and poor) and classification scores for each indicator were added in 2020 replacing the favourable/unfavourable condition thresholds originally used, to better reflect the scoring methodology and scores used for national reporting on woodland ecological condition developed and published in 2020 by the National Forest Inventory.

This will help you to get an overview of the condition of your wood’s habitats and identify any issues you may need to address.

The search your wood's wildlife and the woodland guidance tabs provide information on your local woodland wildlife and general guidance you may find helpful.

The condition assessment has been developed and tested by members of the England Woodland Biodiversity Group* to enable owners to assess woodland condition in a standardised way. Feedback on how you find the assessment process would be useful using the blue feedback button.

Simply download the supporting information and forms on the right to begin.