Woodland Ecology and Conservation

Climate change and biodiversity loss are the twin challenges of our time. Study a woodland ecology and conservation degree to become part of the solution by gaining expertise in forest management, biodiversity and woodland conservation.

On this degree course, you’ll be living and studying at our inspirational Ambleside campus in the heart of the Lake District National Park – the ideal location to appreciate and value the conservation and ecology of woodlands.

This course will provide you with the ecological knowledge that underpins modern sustainable forest management. Graduates are able to manage trees, woods and forests to protect biodiversity and optimise the delivery of benefits to human society directly through timber production and space for recreation, but also to apply knowledge of essential ecosystem services; carbon, nutrient and water cycling, flood and erosion control amongst other.

As an undergraduate in woodland ecology and conservation at the University of Cumbria, you will learn how to sustainably manage trees, woods and forests at our National School of Forestry. Throughout the course, hands-on experience will back up the theory from ancient woodlands through to commercial forests, residential study tours to the upland and lowland habitats.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

You will learn to apply such principles and processes to the sustainable management of woodland multiple goods and ecosystem services (for example, , protection of soil and water, and recreation, and support of a diversity of threatened plants and wildlife). You will critically assess contemporary issues in woodland conservation such as rewilding and species reintroductions.

Our programme will allow you to explore the commercial, social and environmental contexts in which forestry is practised and the consequences of forestry for the rural economy, society and the environment. You will learn how to conduct research monitoring changes in forest condition, health and carbon capture, as well as acquiring skills at describing tree and forest types and the ecological systems and processes that they support.