The reserve is considered to be one of the most important sites for
woodland conservation in the United Kingdom and lies on the southern side of a
gorge formed by the winding
River Wye. In response to criticism of its
afforestation programmes in 1938, the
Forestry Commission offered
ecologists the opportunity to set up research reserves on its land. With the support of Eustace Jones of the
University of Oxford Forestry department, the only such reserve that was established in the UK was at Lady Park Wood. The reserve was established in 1944, and has been surveyed on a regular basis since then. In 1945, the wood consisted of old stands that had been
coppiced in 1870 and thinned in 1902 and the 1920s. All were then allowed to grow unmanaged. According to ecologist George Peterken, it was found that tree growth led to a decline in tree numbers, through increasing shade and browsing by
deer, and, over time, disturbances such as
Dutch elm disease in the 1970s, and a late snowfall in 1983 had increasingly disproportionate impacts on the woodland. It was found that "there was no single natural composition; rather, the natural mixture would fluctuate between beech dominance and ash-lime dominance according to the chance impacts of various disturbances." In recent years the woodland has become overrun by
fallow deer and
grey squirrels — both non-native species — affecting the regrowth of its trees. The Welsh part of the wood is the
Easternmost point in Wales; it is further East than English places such as
Hereford,
Leominster and
Shrewsbury. ==Flora==