What To Look For When Buying a Small Woodland
A few tips from past purchasers …. Of course, buying your woodland is a very personal decision. What’s important to you might not be to someone else and vice versa. However, it’s safe to say there are a couple of constants to bear in mind:
- is it near enough for us to visit regularly?
- what’s the access like? Tracks?
- what are the neighbours like? Would they keep an eye on the place when we’re not around?
- are there signs of trespassing or fly tipping?
- will we be able to cope on our own, or will we need help in managing it?
- how are we going to pay for it, and can we afford the upkeep costs?
Set aside a couple of hours for your initial visit and take a notebook, camera and some tree/plant ID books. Record in your notebook:
- what’s there (and what isn’t)
- how the wood has been managed
- current biodiversity
- scope for improvement
- whether it’s sloping or level
- if sloping, which way does it face, north or south?
Take lots of pictures. Once you are home you will have something to refer to.
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Discussion
One thing to check before proceeding to purchase is the question of whether it has been decreed open access land. If it has been so declared then ownership becomes very much more complicated with all the associated requirements of open access land legislation.
Check to see if the land/woodland is under an open access agreement before proceeding as this could impose quite a considerable increase in costs and administration to your land/woodland
Richard Stevens
27 July, 2008