The project area forms the major part of the Oxfordshire Cotswolds, with their distinctive upland identity interspersed by river valleys. Much of the area is included within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Agriculture is the principal land use and the area is dotted with small woods.
Within the Project area the present tree cover is a little higher, but tends to be concentrated on the major estates of Cornbury, Blenheim and Ditchley. Set alongside these, the Project's aims of planting 2000 acres by 2009 are modest. The area is mostly covered by OS map 164 in the Landranger series, but for the western section you will need 163. The Project has recently received a grant of 1000 from the Summerfield Charitable Trust to help create maps showing Wychwood as it was. In particular, we are working on an illustrated map of medieval Wychwood, showing the forest boundaries, and the areas of woodland, downland, open fields and heaths which made up the Forest.