THE FOREST of Dean Beavers will be the subject of a talk at the Lyttleton Rooms in Malvern at 7.30pm on March 2 writes Poppy Chambers.
The presentation will be given by Kate Woollen at the next meeting of the Malvern branch of the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust.
Kate is from the West England Forest District.
At the group’s last meeting earlier this month a talk was given by Andy Harris – the WWT’s Northern Reserves Officer – on loss of West Midlands’ heathland and local wildlife.
Andy spoke about how 90 per cent of heathland in Worcestershire had been lost to development or been left to revert to woodland and shed light on what could be done to reverse the trend.
Andy described a 10-year management and restitution project being carried out on the Trust’s Devil’s Spittleful and Rifle Range reserves in the north of the county.
It is now accounting for the largest area of heathland in the county after it was extended to the adjoining dropping well farm.
Scrubby woodland is being cleared, the heath is being grazed by cattle and sheep to prevent unwanted new growth and traditional heathland plants – heather, brook and silver birch – are being replanted.
Andy said it was reassuring to know the WWT’s efforts to restore and preserve these traditional and environmentally important landscapes was ‘reassuring’.
Work on this reserve had already seen once common birds, including skylarks, yellowhammers, woodlarks, tree pipits and the increasingly rare nightjar at the site, along with lizards, great-crested newts, 20 species of butterflies and rare bees and wasps which burrow in the sandy soil.
Everyone is welcome to the March 2 meeting and admission is £2.50.
