London Woodland Condition Self-assessment

London Wildlife Trust is leading a project for the London Urban Forest Partnership, funded by the Defra Trees Call to Action Fund (TCAF). The partnership has developed a “Woodland Condition Self-assessment" tool (WCS). 

There are other tools available, but they are designed for specialists. This tool has been designed and tested with volunteer groups in London that are involved with the management of their local woodlands. The group would use a simple form to self-assess a woodland. This form provides an assessment of the conditions for various aspects of the woodland, offering an indication of the improvements that could be made.

Volunteer groups would use this tool to self-assess a woodland space and get an idea of indication of the improvements that can be made. Any size of woodland in London is relevant for this project if there are volunteer groups who would like to get involved. Everyone needs to understand that this is a self-assessment; there is no interest in evaluating the performance of the friend group or competing between woodlands.

The WCS documents are being temporarily hosted on this page and are available to download below:

• Woodland Condition Self-assessment Guidance - landscape
• Woodland Condition Self-assessment Guidance - phone
• Woodland Condition Self-assessment scores
• Woodland Condition Self-assessment Form A4
• Woodland Condition Self-assessment Form A3

Once the WCS and the guidance are ready to be published and disseminated, they will be uploaded here.

We are keen to collect images to be used in a simple photographic guide of the species people will need to know to carry out the WCS. 

Add your images to the collection

If after assessing your local woodland your group is interested in additional training on specific actions to improve the assessed woodlands, please contact alastair.mckinlay@tcv.org.uk