Jones Hill Wood

Jones Hill Wood is a 1.8-hectare (4.4-acre) piece of ancient woodland between Great Missenden and Wendover in Buckinghamshire.[1][2] It is part of the Chiltern Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.[3] The woods are formed mainly of beech trees and provide a habitat for badgers, bats, foxes, and tawny owls.[4] Lesser flora include bluebells, dog’s mercury, dog’s violet and primrose.[4] The author Roald Dahl lived in Great Missenden and drew on his walks in the woods for novels such as Fantastic Mr Fox.[1][5]

In planning for High Speed 2 (HS2), phase one of which is a railway between Birmingham and London, the clearance of 1 hectare (2.5 acres) was mandated. This was then reduced to 0.7 hectares (1.7 acres) and HS2 plans to plant 4.1 hectares (10 acres) of new woodland in compensation.[6] Thus, almost half of the wood will be chopped down and it is one of 20 ancient woodland sites that HS2 will attempt to translocate, meaning the topsoil will be moved to another place.[4] Natural England states that it is impossible to move ancient woodland.[4][7]

A tree sitting protest camp was set up in March 2020 in order to stop the demolition of the site. It was evicted in October 2020.[8] On the first day, forty people were removed from the woods.[8] On the following day, a Green party councillor was arrested after he was taken from a tree he had lived in for three months.[9] After six days, the last protestor to be evicted was veteran environmental activist Swampy, who was taken from a 60-foot (18 m) high treehouse.[10] Along with four other people, he was charged with aggravated trespass.[2]

After the eviction, a report found evidence of rare barbastelle bats living at Jones Hill Wood.[11] Lawyers requested that HS2 stopped clearing the site until a full survey had been carried out and suggested that the Natural England licence for works did not include destruction of bat habitats.[11]