The WrEN project (Woodland Creation & Ecological Networks) brings together researchers, conservationists, land managers and policy makers to work on restoring habitats for wildlife. By studying how nature responds to real-world changes in the landscape, we aim to answer a key question: how should we focus our restoration actions to maximise benefits for wildlife? Our goal is to produce practical, evidence-based guidance to support future conservation work.
Restoring and creating natural habitats is now a global priority, with major initiatives like the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and national programmes (e.g. the UK's Nature Recovery Schemes) driving large-scale action. Yet despite significant investment, we still have surprisingly little understanding of how newly created habitats - particularly woodlands - actually benefit wildlife in the long term. Woodlands are among the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth, but have dramatically declined over the past few centuries. New woodlands can take decades to mature and for wildlife to respond, yet most research only captures the early stages. This leaves a critical gap in our knowledge, and in our ability to direct conservation resources where they're needed most.
Restoring and creating natural habitats is now a global priority, with major initiatives like the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and national programmes (e.g. the UK's Nature Recovery Schemes) driving large-scale action. Yet despite significant investment, we still have surprisingly little understanding of how newly created habitats - particularly woodlands - actually benefit wildlife in the long term. Woodlands are among the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth, but have dramatically declined over the past few centuries. New woodlands can take decades to mature and for wildlife to respond, yet most research only captures the early stages. This leaves a critical gap in our knowledge, and in our ability to direct conservation resources where they're needed most.
The 'Making space for Nature' report (Lawton et al. 2010) concluded that wildlife habitats needed to be 'bigger, better, and more joined-up', and has influenced UK environmental policy. The WrEN project took inspiration from this work when we were considering site selection, and which attributes might influence the colonisation and establishment of species at new woodland sites.
Network of planted woodlands 'WrEN sites' in Scotland and England
Travelling back in time for nature
Understanding how wildlife responds to new woodland takes decades, time we don't have when nature is in crisis. Starting in 2013, the WrEN project found another way: rather than waiting, we look back at woodlands planted across the UK over the past century to understand how they've been colonised by wildlife over time.
These historically created woodlands act as a natural experiment. They were planted on former farmland at a known date, making them a blank canvas. By studying hundreds of these sites, we can piece together a picture of how woodland wildlife develops over decades, without having to wait decades to do it. To do this rigorously, we selected 106 woodland sites across two typical UK farming landscapes - one in Scotland, one in England - chosen to represent a wide range of ages, sizes and degrees of isolation from other habitats. Using historical maps dating back to the 1840s, we were able to verify when each woodland was established (see image below). Full information on how we set up the WrEN project can be found in Watts et al. 2016.
We then quantified a wide range of metrics for each woodland, mapped its surroundings and sampled different species groups within each site. The result is a uniquely powerful evidence base — one that can help conservationists and land managers make smarter decisions about where and how to create new habitats, how to connect them, and what to realistically expect over time.
Understanding how wildlife responds to new woodland takes decades, time we don't have when nature is in crisis. Starting in 2013, the WrEN project found another way: rather than waiting, we look back at woodlands planted across the UK over the past century to understand how they've been colonised by wildlife over time.
These historically created woodlands act as a natural experiment. They were planted on former farmland at a known date, making them a blank canvas. By studying hundreds of these sites, we can piece together a picture of how woodland wildlife develops over decades, without having to wait decades to do it. To do this rigorously, we selected 106 woodland sites across two typical UK farming landscapes - one in Scotland, one in England - chosen to represent a wide range of ages, sizes and degrees of isolation from other habitats. Using historical maps dating back to the 1840s, we were able to verify when each woodland was established (see image below). Full information on how we set up the WrEN project can be found in Watts et al. 2016.
We then quantified a wide range of metrics for each woodland, mapped its surroundings and sampled different species groups within each site. The result is a uniquely powerful evidence base — one that can help conservationists and land managers make smarter decisions about where and how to create new habitats, how to connect them, and what to realistically expect over time.
Evolution of a WrEN site - images left to right show the the historical land use maps we used to establish the age of one of our sites in England. The final image is a modern aerial photograph. The woodland labeled as 'Eleven Acre Covert' appeared on the maps between 1890 and 1900, making it approximately 115 years old when we first surveyed it in 2014.