The Rangers from Natural England who we invited to come and have a look were optimistic about the plants we would see in the spring.

They were right! This was confirmed by the Hampshire Biodiversity Information Centre (HBIC) survey in spring 2022. There are many different species of plants covering the woodland floor - in excess of 100!  We have included a few pictures of some common ones on this page. Some we can identify, but many we can't, so any botanists out there - please feel free to let us know the plants you recognise.

This is one reason we respectfully ask that you stick to the footpath. You can't know what you are treading on and potentially damaging if you wander through the woods.

We know we have native bluebells and these are a protected species so need us to care for them and protect them from trampling feet.

Equally, we understand that wood anemones are indicator species of ancient woodland as they spread so slowly - about 6 metres in a century!

The honey suckle is important for the marbled white butterflies and the violets are the food source for the silver washed fritillary butterflies, both of which are residents of the area.

We hope that by letting more light in, we will increase the flowers on the brambles so offering more food for insects and then more blackberries for you as you wander along the public rights of way!

We have spotted a few native common spotted orchids too and hope we will find an increasing range of different plants over time.

We are finding a wide range of trees within the copse.  Any replanting we will do will generally reflect what is already growing here, although research seems to show that natural regeneration and successional growth is generally more succesful than replanting. The Officer from the Forestry Commission also confirmed this. So, we plan to thin the canopy, then wait to see what nature has already planted for us! However we will also be planting new saplings of different varieties as, with climate change, we need to improve the resilience of the wood by increasing the species of trees within it. All trees will be native and grown in Britain, so no non-native imports! So far, we have planted in excess of 700 whips, mainly, though not exclusively, to bulk up the hedgerows we are trying to create. We have plans to plant more as we create the space for them to grow. 450 whips whips came from The Woodland Trust and, The Conservation Volunteers partnership with OVO gave us a further 150, so thanks to them for their support. We are also growing our own trees in a tree nursery on site and purchased a further 50 whips which were planted last winter.

Thanks to Paul Bushell for organising the 450 Woodland Trust whips for us and for buying us another 50 hazel whips and thanks to all our wonderful volunteers who helped get all the trees into the ground.

As we remove some trees, the new ones we have been planting will be taking their place and taking greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. Every little helps in our fight against climate change.

We are excited to see how they take and hope you will enjoy them as you walk through the woodland. If our plan works, there will be more fruit and flowers along the bridleway over time, both for wildlife and foraging humans!