A report has been published presenting results from a national survey exploring attitudes, experiences and actions among private land managers in relation to environmental change.
The research was completed by Sylva Foundation, an environmental charity, working with Forest Research, Great Britain’s principal organisation for forestry and tree-related research. Funding was provided by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The 2025 British Woodlands Survey is a third instance on the theme of environmental change—following similar research undertaken in 2015 and 2020—creating a highly-valuable ten-year time series.
More than 500 respondents took part in the survey: 88% owned or managed woodland, representing a significant area of woodland (183,000 hectares) across Britain, or 7.5% of private woodland area.
Only half of respondents reported having a management plan in place which was compliant with the UK Forestry Standard. Many land managers reported constraints from lack of time and money which impacted woodland management, but also significant pressures from tree health impacts, as well as severe impacts from grey squirrels and deer. During the last five years, land managers reported increased damage from pathogens (+79%), wind (+67%), drought (+63%) and invertebrate pests (+63%). There were clear differences across the country, with land managers in eastern England concerned about drought, whilst those further north were more concerned about wind damage. Despite these and other threats to tree health, only one-third of land managers took steps to improve biosecurity.
More than half of land managers reported expanding tree cover in the last five years, showing a preference for native tree species. They valued planting material which was biosecure and locally-grown. On average, land managers were ambivalent towards genetically-improved trees for productivity, yet supported genetic selections promoting tree health. Respondents were willing to pay more for improved planting material, and increasingly likely to adopt natural regeneration.
Many land managers already contribute to informal monitoring, and nearly half expressed willingness to host or support research activities. Many land managers recognised that in future it was likely that they would need to adjust efforts to control tree pests, and also to adjust the timing of woodland planting and management to fit with changing environmental conditions.
Lead author of the survey report and chief executive of Sylva Foundation, Dr Gabriel Hemery, said:
“The 2025 British Woodlands Survey has revealed a sector that is increasingly aware of environmental change and perhaps ecologically-minded, yet levels of motivation are affected by long-standing structural and practical constraints. Indeed, there appears to be a mismatch between ecological concern and operational confidence.
“The woodland sector needs to urgently address the disappointing levels of management planning and take steps to improve biosecurity, particularly in the face of increasing environmental change. Considering long-term trends, it appears that resilience actions remain largely incremental rather than transformative. It is evident that collective effort and even greater levels of collaboration and action are required in every part of the tree, woodland and forestry sector.”
Lead researcher from the team at Forest Research, Greg Counsell, added:
“Forest Research is delighted to have collaborated with Sylva Foundation on the 2025 British Woodland Survey. Ongoing research into environmental change is vital to help the sector understand experiences and actions undertaken by woodland owners and how that has developed over significant time frames, while also identifying gaps in available information and resources to support woodland owners.
“A range of resources and decision support tools are freely available on the Forest Research website to help woodland owners with woodland management and some of the issues raised in the survey, such as how to adapt woodlands and mitigate against climate change in areas including drought, windthrow and pests and diseases.”
The full report and supplementary materials are freely available from Sylva Foundation at www.sylva.org.uk/bws
