Woodland Development: A Long Term Study of Lady Park Wood. 2017. illus. XV, 286 p. gr8vo. Hardcover.

Lady Park Wood was set aside as a 'natural' reserve for ecological research in 1944 and the trees, shrubs and ground vegetation have been recorded in detail ever since. The 70 years of observations now represent one of the largest and most detailed records in Europe of how a woodland develops under the influence of natural factors. Chapter headings: Understanding Woodland/ Lady Park Wood and its History/ The Ecological Reserve/ Recording Trees and Expressing Change/ The Changing Woodland/ Ash: The Tree in the Spotlight/ Beech and Oak, the Major Forest Trees/ Limes and Wych Elm/ Birch and other Short-lived Canopy Trees/ Field Maple and Hazel, the other Coppice Species/ Minor Trees and Shrubs/ Habitats/ Species/ Long-term Ecological Studies/ Natural Woodland in Theory and Practice/ Near-to-Nature Forestry/ Rewilding, Remoteness and Wilderness.Comprises detailed measurements of 20,000 individual trees and shrubs, from which the performance of populations of oak, beech, ash, limes, etc. can be quantified in detail, and the development of a near-natural wood and the factors influencing it can be detailed. Also reference to woods elsewhere in Britain and Europe. It mainly deals with populations of native tree species.