I was talking to the representative on the woodland trust stand at the grand designs show about if they encourage cycling within there woodlands. He was vague but said they do, but didn’t have many examples. I was thinking of joining the organization but only if there is an active policy that would include cycling use. I cant find much online. Does anyone have any views about them?

There’s a woods at the top of my road managed by them, lots of signs saying horses ok, cyclists not allowed.

Judging by local woods that are managed by them they seem to me to be unsympathetic to cyclists. You could of course always join to try and change that.

I’m sure what they do is great in terms of conserving/managing woodland; don’t know that I’ve ever seen an example of them promoting or encouraging cycling though. As above, plenty of “no cycling” or “stick to the multi-user path” (which, in this specific instance, is crap and poorly maintained) signs.

They make the National Trust look like a pro cycling pressure group. From what I’ve seen they have an unwritten no cycling policy.

They make the National Trust look like a pro cycling pressure group.

That’s my impression too.

They make the National Trust look like a pro cycling pressure group

This.

Bottom rung with private shooting woodland IME.

Sounds like the rep just wanted to send out positive vibes.

Thanks, I got the feeling they were not encouraging cycling.
“You could of course always join to try and change that.” Good point, I am not in anyway an activist though, I would leave that to more the eloquent among us.

Nope, they are vehemently against in my experience – they’re too good bed fellows with ‘The Ramblers’.

We were talking to one of the NT rangers locally where NT shares woodland with the WT. His take was that the WT struggles with the concept of recreation generally; they are foresters first and don’t particularly want anyone in their woods – but have to put up with walkers.

very anti. the local cycling club got a stop cycling in the woods, it was a nice safe way of getting from a to b. They also tried to get a bridleway downgraded, failed, which would have forced horses and cyclists onto a very major road.

Not near me. Shame really.
Wormley woods for example – several signs prohibiting cycling and they even brought some heavy machinery in to remove a couple of trail features.Which did more damage in one visit than a fifty cyclists could in a year. 🙄

Not at all. The woods (plural) local to us are full of don’t/mustn’t/shouldn’t signs pointing at people on bikes and the paths that are open to bikes are crap. Meh. I’ll spend my pounds in someone else’s cafe, ta.

I don’t know but give their name and remit I wouldn’t expect them to be.

Whereas other bodies have clear recreation built into their policies.

WT about conservation. That’s okay with me give the small amount of ancient woodland.

Having said all that we can blast around the woods in ancient Sherwood Forest but there’s bridleways aplenty.

Yeah very anti in my experience. I would never support them. In contrast I’ve been a National Trust member forever.

other bodies have clear recreation built into their policies

One of the WT’s principles is ensuring public access is available but it’s very much on their terms with little understanding or allowance for any damage/disturbance different transport modes might cause.

I was talking to the representative on the woodland trust stand at the grand designs show about if they encourage cycling within there woodlands. He was vague but said they do, but didn’t have many examples. I was thinking of joining the organization but only if there is an active policy that would include cycling use. I cant find much online. Does anyone have any views about them?

No they don’t support access for cycling, they are for people who take dogs to toilet in the woods and don’t want Fido running over.

WT about conservation.

No they aren’t, if they were they would ban dogs. They are about making pleasant dog toilets

Conservation eh? Effectively they want the woods to themselves to chase and kill furry and feathery things.

The local wood they own, has been passed on to the local wildlife trust who would implement a no humans policy if they could. They make your stereotypical gamekeeper look welcoming.

All our local WT holdings have signs saying “you are welcome to walk in these woods.” One has a sign saying “No horses”. I have never seen anything for or against cycling.
I have been a member for 20 years. Their newsletters, mags etc are all about how to enjoy your local WT wood etc. They issue a comprehensive guide to their holdings with notes about access, what can be seen there etc.
I have never seen any connection between WT and the chasing and killing of “furry things”.

As other people have said, my experience of them has been strongly anti-cycling.

The local wood they own, has been passed on to the local wildlife trust who would implement a no humans policy if they could.

Considering the mess some humans make that’s not necessarily always a bad thing

allow dirt jumps in a small area of woods near my parents house – I haven;t been there for a long time but it was all managed quite well.

there had been jumps there for 15 years, over the course of a year or two they got a bit bigger and spread out, almost onto a footpath. The diggers were then told to keep it to a specific area only – and keep the litter down, which seemed to be working last time i was there.

There were some official signs explaining it all.

After the family becoming members of the Woodland Trust and having a tree planted in our names in our local wood that is managed by them, we took a family walk up there to find our tree.
Unfortunately it appears that it is just a dog toilet. You don’t get to enjoy much of the view when you have to spend the whole walk looking at the ground 2 feet in front to avoid stepping in shite. We haven’t been back. The local FC woods gets more respect from the dog owners and we can ride too.

No issues in Errington woods near Saltburn. Fairy trails and features all over the place. Everyone gets on – woodland trust volunteers, walkers, MTB and horse riders.

No issues in Errington woods near Saltburn

That’ll be because it’s a community wood owned by the borough council. Not thanks to the WT.

Woodland Trust access policy

The official position

Well that’s clear as mud.

That hasn’t made things any clearer. I am not sure if anyones wanted in the woods or not, let alone specific groups.

I’m not so negative. Perhaps we have more space and fewer users. The Trossachs have WT woods, and they are amenable to riders (see trail alongside Loch Venachar/Brig O Turk) and fine with one of my DofE groups camping there.

“Recreational benefits should not override ecological sensitivity”

Phew, false alarm. Get out and ride.

They hate hill farmers/sheep and have a very open policy of getting rid of them in Cumbria. According to them both have responsibility for global warming and floods. They even claim that a survey they conducted to find out what hill users expect to see in the Cumbrian fells concluded that not a single person said sheep!

With that in mind it would be interesting to hear their take on the effect cycling is having here.

Same story in my local woods, no cycling signs and they have been in to remove some jumps recently.

Specialist recreational activities that exclude public access may in themselves be damaging especially to semi-natural ancient and other important native woodland e.g. 4 x 4 off road driving and paintball games.

I get that driving a 4×4 recreationally (ie, fast and slidey) through a wood may well rip up the landscape quite dramatically (having seen how much damage dirt bikes can do in just a weekend), but paintball? Seriously?

Jumps have been removed and trails blocked localish to me but thats mainly because the yoofs went a bit wild and tried to create a rampage style jump park 😀

Necromancing this thread as it’s a top Google hit for the issue.

Pipe Hall woods near Cannock Chase has a no cycling sign up. (I missed it and got moaned at when I rode through :/).

No mention on the WT PH website about cycling.

From this thread and other stuff online I guess all WT woods are no cycling by default.

I guess all WT woods are no cycling by default.

You would be wrong. Perhaps the access laws in Scotland, but I have three woodland trust areas near me that I’ve cycled in regularly, one even has purpose built trail.

I asked them on twitter and they said “only where there are bridleways”. When I asked why they made vague noises about erosion.

They’re very unfriendly round my way.