Great Haughurst Copse is an amazing place. A semi-natural ancient woodland, which has been neglected for decades. Failure to manage it will mean the woodland will begin to die and that is something the owners, Anne and Laurie, wish to avoid. As a result, there is a ten year management plan in situ and everything that is done to restore the woodland is done with permissions and for ecological reasons. It could not happen without the help of 'The Friends of Haughurst Copse' volunteers. Drawing the plan up was undertaken with advice from many experts, so although some of the work will look brutal, there will be a reason and we hope to keep you informed through this website.

A priority is to create a marix of habitats to make homes for as many members of the wildlife community as possible. This will be done by watching and observing what the woodland seems to be asking us to do. We hope to have ponds and wetland areas; glades; 'rides'; hazel coppice; scrubby areas and will be increasing the number of tree species on site. Thanks to the Hampshire Forest Partnership, we collected three Dutch Elm Disease resistant trees in January 2025 and have planted them alongside the bridleway where you will be able to enjoy them. Maybe we will encourage the rare white hairstreak butterfly to come and live here!

The conifer plantation needs major work doing as it is becoming increasingly dangerous.

We now have a felling license to clear fell the area, ready to return it to broad leaved deciduous woodland. We will be replanting with a wide range of different tree species in order to improve the wood's resilience into the future.  We  aim to leave some of the conifers for those creatures such as the gold and fire crests; coal tits and raptors that do enjoy having them.

However, we will not do this work until the end of the bird nesting season. It will look brutal, but in the long term, it will benefit the woodland and everything that calls it home.

We also have a license to begin the task of thinning out the canopy and trees will be chosen for removal very strategically, so as to give the trees that remain the best chance of developing into veterans or to continue providing brilliant habitat.

Hampshire County Council have done a fantastic job of improving the bridleway in partnership with the local community, which is fantastic news!

We finally reached our financial target to work on the footpath to the north of the Copse.

(Thank you Cllr Derek Mellor for a generous grant towards the work).

The footpath work is complete and the footpath opened on 15th August 2024. Enjoy and please give us your feedback. Thank you!

Our long term aim always has been to make walking/ riding here more of a pleasure, promise!

We have worked so hard to get this right, but we know we are not experts and are aware that we may not have totally solved the problem and may need to do more in future years.

We are putting event dates on the events page. If there is anything else you would like us to do - please get in touch!

 Please keep to the official public rights of way, as marked on the OS map. This is for your safety as well as the benefit of the wildlife. Thank you.