A multi-million pound scheme is helping restore habitats, support commoning and increase education about the New Forest.
The Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) scheme, which is managed by the Verderers of the New Forest in partnership with Forestry England and the New Forest National Park Authority with support from the Commoners’ Defence Association (CDA) and Natural England, has been running since 2010 and brings £2m a year into the Forest.
In that time, its work has included restoring miles of wildlife habitats, working to identify and protect historic sites across an area the size of 17,000 football pitches and inspiring around 20,000 school children to cherish and protect the unique environment.
Some of the more recent projects have included funding reflective collars for livestock and restoring wetland areas to increase their biodiversity and adapt to climate change.
Around 3,000 reflective collars were fitted to ponies, donkeys and cattle during the past year to increase their visibility to drivers and reduce the number of livestock involved in road accidents.
Pictured above: A New Forest pony wearing a reflective collar
Wetland restoration projects included specialist species and habitat surveys on various sites, while monitoring was carried out using techniques such as water level loggers and timelapse cameras.
Six surveys of rare species were completed – these were six-spotted cranefly, Beaulieu dung beetle, brown diving beetle, New Forest mud beetle, Dartford Warbler and nightjar – to monitor their presence and activity in the Forest.
Meanwhile, Forestry England volunteers carried out riverfly surveys which help monitor the health of New Forest streams and overall water quality.
Funding from the HLS scheme enabled nearly 550 pupils from 11 schools to visit and learn about the special qualities of the New Forest.
Feedback from the schools was extremely positive, with Broad Chalke Primary School in Salisbury saying their children can now talk about habitats and creatures with more confidence, while Otterbourne Primary School in Winchester said pupils loved the amount of knowledge that was shared and the opportunities ‘to stop and gaze with awe and wonder at the wildlife around.’
The celebration evening, which took place at the Verderers’ Court in Lyndhurst on 31 January, saw Official Verderer Edward Heron make a speech to highlight some of the scheme’s achievements and thank the volunteers who took part in projects and survey work.
‘The HLS scheme has delivered a wide range of long-lasting benefits for the Forest in the last year,’ he said.
‘There are so many people who work so hard to deliver the benefits of the HLS scheme and they are due thanks from us all.’