The Habitat’s Trail

This project aimed to enable young volunteers to survey rare habitats within a community managed woodland (Harmony Woods), and to create a new, biodiverse, learning in nature space, called the Habitat’s Trail.

It was split into two phases:

The first phase of the project was focussed on wildlife surveying with youth and school groups. Children visited Harmony Woods in the spring and summer of 2021. They were invited to spend the day with a graduate ecologist, who took them on an educational walk, taught them how to identify plants and animals from British woodland habitats and how to carry out wildlife surveys.

They then made their way to the Habitat Trail area, where it was their job to become ecologists for the day. They carried out quadrat surveys and recorded the diversity and abundance of the wildflowers and grasses.

“Hi, I just wanted to say a big thank you for the excellent day our A Level Biology and Environmental Science students spent with you on Wednesday. Alex was an excellent host and ran the two ecological survey exercises wonderfully well. Our students are busy collating the data we collated on the day, and processing the results.” - College tutor

“I loved the beautiful flowers, they gleamed like sunshine and it was so fun. My favourite was the Birdsfoot Trefoil. I wish I could go back sometime.”

“I loved Harmony woods! I didn't know there were plants like the Yellow Rattle and Birdsfoot Trefoil.”

“I really enjoyed using the quadrats to see how many species of plant there were in 3 different areas.”

“The facilitator had a really wonderful way with the children and the adults who attended. This is a very special project”

The second phase of the project was focused on practical conservation work.

A mini-digger and dump truck were hired to carry out excavations. Volunteers of all ages took part in the shaping of soil mounds and chalk mounds in the centre of the trail area. They also shaped the new pond, installed the liner and geotextile layers, and connected it to our existing pond.

The majority of the practical work was carried out over a weekend in October 2021; smaller groups of volunteers subsequently carried out the remainder of the work. These groups included our Monday volunteer work team and students from a local secondary school who came multiple times.

Following the site preparation, volunteers planted new wildflower plants (sown and grown by our volunteers) in the Habitat’s Trail meadow and sowed chalk meadow seeds on the newly sculpted mounds. In January 2022, volunteers planted a new Hawthorn hedge along the fence line of the new pond.

At the time of writing (May 2022), we are in the process of designing an information board.

The habitats that have been created include: chalk grassland (of varying sward heights), chalk wildflower meadow, soil and chalk mounds (for increased thermal heterogeneity), freshwater pond, and a new hawthorn hedgerow.

“It was a fantastic experience! Being able to witness the plans on the paper turn into 2 new landmark habits. It was all made possible by the amazing collection of people. I was able to learn from both expert engineers and ecologists.” - 22 year old volunteer

“I really enjoyed the practical work it allowed me to learn new skills and apply my own knowledge of conducting the project” - Work experience student

“I really enjoyed working alongside so many people from the community creating the habitat trail and extending the pond. Can’t wait to see the new environments grow and attract new wildlife and people to enjoy them.” - volunteer