Blog types: Nature Reserves

In this feature, we hear from Steve Darling, the secretary for the steering group of volunteers at Dane Valley Woods.

• Local Wildlife Sites
• Woodland

Winter, for many, is a season of preparation for the year ahead, of drawing inward. Outside, the earth draws inward too, bedding down to preserve its energy for the warmer days...

• Habitat Management
• Local Wildlife Sites
• Woodland

The writer H E Bates moved from Northamptonshire to Little Chart Forstal in 1931. His deep knowledge of the countryside coloured all his writing. In ‘Through the Woods’ (1936), with fine wood engravings by Agnes Miller Parker, he wrote in loving detail about the plant and animal life in Coldham Wood, which lies due west of the Extension section of Hothfield Heathland.

• Birds
• Heathland
• Hothfield Heathland
• Plants
• Species

Our work at Polhill Bank has been ongoing for several years now. Over time, we have purchased more neighbouring patches of land there, adding up to around 16 hectares now under our nature-positive management. In many ways, our wilding journey in the area goes back more than a decade; in others, it’s only just begun.

• Campaigns and Projects
• Polhill Bank
• Protect Polhill
• Wilder Grazing
• Wilder Kent Strategy
• Wilding

Margery Thomas, volunteer at Hothfield Heathlands, gives us an update from the reserve, where the first signs of spring are stirring!

• Hothfield Heathland
• Spring
• Wildlife

We humans have a habit of thinking in terms of opposition: there’s rain or shine, hot or cold, and land or sea – to name but a few. Salt marshes, however, are something in between.

• Conservation
• Marine
• Wetlands
• Wilding

Ian Rickards, Area Manager for Kent Wildlife Trust explains why there is some dramatic work currently being undertaken at Hothfield Heathlands Nature Reserve.

• Conservation
• Habitat Management
• Hothfield Heathland

Now winter has drawn in, seeking out wildlife spectacles may seem strange. However, nature does not take a hiatus during the colder months, and the winter landscape is teeming with remarkable displays of wildlife.

• Outdoors
• Winter

Helen Pitman, Wilder Blean Landscape Development Manager shares a trip to the Netherlands in September to learn how the Dutch have tackled the challenge of providing space for nature in a crowded landscape.

• Wilder Blean

Margery Thomas describes a rainy November at Hothfield Heathland as pigs have been introduced and work is being done to make the bog areas more resilient to drier months.

• Conservation
• Hothfield Heathland
• Volunteering