The amount of woodland covering the South Devon National Landscape is less than in many other places. We have only 7%, compared with 11.6% for the UK and 46% for Europe as a whole.
Even so, trees are a very special part of our landscape, especially the dense oak woodlands which line the estuaries and the willow scrub on the valley bottoms. Because the soils of the area are productive for agriculture, the woodland we do have is mostly on the steeper and less accessible valley sides which are more difficult to farm.