Category: Forest

Where? – 12 – Forests

Last week’s battlefields were tricky, weren’t they?  Some of these forests cover quite a large area.  Does that make it easier?

Once again print out a blank outline map.  You can use the one below.

The best way to learn where things are is to put them on a map, but if I just give you a completed map, that won’t help much, so grab a blank map and a pencil, find somebody for a bit of competition, and let’s see what you know already.

Here are Britain’s ten biggest forest areas, plus some of the more well-known smaller ones.

  1. Affric Forest Park
  2. Argyll Forest Park
  3. Brechfa Forest
  4. Camore Wood
  5. Cannock Chase
  6. Castlewellan Forest Park
  7. Epping Forest
  8. Forest of Dean
  9. Galloway Forest Park
  10. Glenariff Forest Park
  11. Glengarry Forest Park
  12. Kielder Forest Park
  13. National Forest
  14. New Forest
  15. Queen Elizabeth Forest Park
  16. Sherwood Forest
  17. Tay Forest Park
  18. Thetford Forest Park

Britain’s forest cover is low compared with the rest of Europe, but Ireland has even less.  Ireland’s Millennium Forests project has been set up to establish 16 new forests in the 21st century.  Find out about them here.

Now scroll past my pictures for your quiz answers.  I’ve tried to put my spots roughly in the centre of each forest area, so if you are within 1cm of mine then count it as correct.

Forest of Dean
Bit of a clue there!

If you are signed up for worksheets, check your inbox for a map of the correct locations, ready for you to label. (If you want to sign up, the form is in the side bar.)

The National Forest

Covering an area of 200 square miles in the English Midland counties of Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire, the National Forest is an ambitious plan to take one of the least wooded regions of Britain and transform it, so that about a third of its land is wooded.

The site links the ancient woodlands of Charnwood in the east and Needwood in the west and is within 1½ hours travel time of 10 million people, with 4 towns within the area of the forest itself. (map)

Millions of trees are being planted and other habitats are planned too, to increase wildlife.

Sale of the wood and an increase in visitors will bring money into the area, and local people will have improved opportunities for recreation, which may benefit health.

Existing land owners keep their land but are encouraged to plant trees.  Sometimes this is farm land, but the area contains many coal mining sites which are no longer used for mining.  Planting them with trees improves the look of the landscape and makes the land useful again.

You can find out more from the National Forest website.