The Forest contains a wide variety of woodland habitats due to the complex underlying geology and its industrial and cultural history. This variety helps a wealth of species to survive and this project will enable us to understand these habitats better and help preserve and enhance them.
The main aim of this project is to carry out targeted surveys of the woodland ground flora to identify the most ecologically important areas of woodland, as well as areas that have high potential for native woodland restoration or creation.
Once the best areas are identified, longer term forestry planning can be used to enhance these further and work towards increasing the area of native woodland habitat, and also aim to maintain and improve the connectivity between them.
We need volunteers to carry out targeted ground woodland flora surveys. Whilst knowledge of woodland flora is not necessary, it is preferable for volunteers to have reasonable existing plant identification skills, which can be further developed through training on identification of the specific species the project is concentrating on.
You might be surprised what you find!
From creating habitats for our wildlife or improving our waterways, to recording oral histories or finding old photos, there’s always something going on to get involved in!