Let There Be Light

Herts’ only National Nature Reserve is thriving thanks to an ongoing restoration project to transform an area of habitat-poor conifer woodland to rich wood pasture, writes Countryside Management Service projects officer Matthew Watts.

IN 2011, Hertfordshire County Council’s Countryside Management Service began a long-term habitat restoration project at Broxbourne and Bencroft Woods to reinstate an area of wood pasture previously lost to 1960s conifer plantation. The sites are part of an extensive complex of woodlands a few miles south of Hertford, owned and managed by the county council, and form part of Herts’ only National Nature Reserve. The area is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest and part of a European Special Area of Conservation, making it one of the county’s most important and protected wildlife assets. Significant areas of predominantly conifer woodland have been removed and the remnant habitat restored and returned to a low-intensity conservation grazing regime.