The areas of broad-leaved woodland which dominate the Savernake Plateau are accompanied by a farmland mosaic.
The plateau is within the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Beauty.

 The mosaic is emphasised by the assarted character of the area east of the 
Savernake (Coppices of Little Frith, Cobham Frith, Chisbury Wood, Haw Wood, etc.),
where farmland occurs as clearings in a wider forest, creating a distinctive and memorable, 'secret' landscape.

Capability Brown worked out a strategy for linking coppices with oak plantings, lining forest trails with beech trees, and providing vistas with "proper objects" on which the eye might rest.
The forest would be made part of the parkland.
The scattered coppices, meadows, scrub, and heath should be united,  into "one great whole."

As times changed, and social expectations altered, a later warden George Frederick was eager to show off his forest.
There was much rearranging of copses and vistas and setting aside of grass rides so that visitors could see the woods as a whole and be impressed.
He ordered that the entire estate be fenced and palings be placed around individual trees.
That way, the deer might roam freely with a minimum of damage.

The fifth marquess recognized that the woodlands needed to be made commercially viable.
Included among the 778,000 trees he planted were a high proportion of softwoods, placed outside the forest's core (e.g.: Birch Copse in the SE).
This warden was too deeply imbued with tradition to contemplate industrialized forestry but he was the first of his family to introduce a measure of systematic management of larch and spruce plantations.

Chandos Bruce, the sixth marquess, did everything possible to carry on with this combination of systematic management and concern for amenity and symbolic representation.
Eventually, however, he found the burden too heavy due to increasing costs, Lloyd George's taxes on inherited wealth, and the impossibility of hiring enough labour during and after the First World War.
In 1930 he approached the government Forestry Commission but drew back when he recognised that surrendering control would probably bring on an invasion by ranks of straight-backed conifers.
Eight years later the commission became more open to the suggestion that recreational uses might be as legitimate as commercial ones and agreed to the special conditions the sixth marquess had stubbornly laid down.
As a result, after 800 years of wardenship, the family surrendered control and the public, because of Lord Ailesbury's dedication, gained a handsome amenity.

Savernake is a coppice-with-standards forest and an Ancient Woodland.
A coppice is a wood where broad-leaved trees, typically hazel, grow out of the stumps or "stools" left from previous cuttings.
Standards are trees allowed to grow to maturity.
If these trees are allowed to grow in close proximity they grow straight and tall.
If they have more room to grow then side branches become substantial.

In the past standardisation was not at all essential.
Craft work and early mechanical industry, such as shipbuilding, wagon making, and furniture making all required "bends" and "knees," as well as other eccentrically shaped pieces which the side branches would provide.
Trees such as beech and oak can be pollarded, a process whereby a standard is cut two-thirds up its trunk.
Multiple boughs grow from the cut point and the life of the tree is extended and curved pieces of bough or trunk are often produced.
Such trees become magnificent specimens and they live through generations of forest workers.
Their base trunk attains great girth.
Often the side boughs become too heavy and are broken in stormy weather.
In other cases the bough weight (an outward force) begins to tear the lower trunk apart creating a cavity which can over decades become cavernous in size.
The oldest of these pollarded trees is the "Big Belly Oak" beside the A346 road.
Big Belly is one of Fifty Great British Trees named and honoured as part of the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations.
It has a girth of 11 metres (36 ft) and is 1000–110
The areas of broad-leaved woodland which dominate the Savernake Plateau are accompanied by a farmland mosaic. The plateau is within the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Beauty.
 The mosaic is emphasised by the assarted character of the area east of the 
Savernake (Coppices of Little Frith, Cobham Frith, Chisbury Wood, Haw Wood, etc.), where farmland occurs as clearings in a wider forest, creating a distinctive and memorable, 'secret' landscape.
Capability Brown worked out a strategy for linking coppices with oak plantings, lining forest trails with beech trees, and providing vistas with "proper objects" on which the eye might rest. The forest would be made part of the parkland. The scattered coppices, meadows, scrub, and heath should be united,  into "one great whole." 
As times changed, and social expectations altered, a later warden George Frederick was eager to show off his forest. There was much rearranging of copses and vistas and setting aside of grass rides so that visitors could see the woods as a whole and be impressed. He ordered that the entire estate be fenced and palings be placed around individual trees. That way, the deer might roam freely with a minimum of damage.
The fifth marquess recognized that the woodlands needed to be made commercially viable. Included among the 778,000 trees he planted were a high proportion of softwoods, placed outside the forest's core (e.g.: Birch Copse in the SE). This warden was too deeply imbued with tradition to contemplate industrialized forestry but he was the first of his family to introduce a measure of systematic management of larch and spruce plantations.
Chandos Bruce, the sixth marquess, did everything possible to carry on with this combination of systematic management and concern for amenity and symbolic representation. Eventually, however, he found the burden too heavy due to increasing costs, Lloyd George's taxes on inherited wealth, and the impossibility of hiring enough labour during and after the First World War. In 1930 he approached the government Forestry Commission but drew back when he recognised that surrendering control would probably bring on an invasion by ranks of straight-backed conifers. Eight years later the commission became more open to the suggestion that recreational uses might be as legitimate as commercial ones and agreed to the special conditions the sixth marquess had stubbornly laid down. As a result, after 800 years of wardenship, the family surrendered control and the public, because of Lord Ailesbury's dedication, gained a handsome amenity.
Savernake is a coppice-with-standards forest and an Ancient Woodland. A coppice is a wood where broad-leaved trees, typically hazel, grow out of the stumps or "stools" left from previous cuttings. Standards are trees allowed to grow to maturity. If these trees are allowed to grow in close proximity they grow straight and tall. If they have more room to grow then side branches become substantial.
In the past standardisation was not at all essential. Craft work and early mechanical industry, such as shipbuilding, wagon making, and furniture making all required "bends" and "knees," as well as other eccentrically shaped pieces which the side branches would provide. Trees such as beech and oak can be pollarded, a process whereby a standard is cut two-thirds up its trunk. Multiple boughs grow from the cut point and the life of the tree is extended and curved pieces of bough or trunk are often produced. Such trees become magnificent specimens and they live through generations of forest workers. Their base trunk attains great girth. Often the side boughs become too heavy and are broken in stormy weather. In other cases the bough weight (an outward force) begins to tear the lower trunk apart creating a cavity which can over decades become cavernous in size. The oldest of these pollarded trees is the "Big Belly Oak" beside the A346 road. Big Belly is one of Fifty Great British Trees named and honoured as part of the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations. It has a girth of 11 metres (36 ft) and is 1000–110
Savernake Forest