Saturday 23 July – Heavenly Heathlands
Beginning in 2016, the Heathlands Reunited project aimed to re-engage and inspire communities to visit their local heathland site.
Led by the South Downs National Park Authority with 10 partner organisations, the project aimed to recreate, reconnect and restore the fragments of lowland heath in the South Downs, with a view to create and improve heathland at 41 sites, covering an area of 12,000 football pitches.
By the project’s end in 2021, it had successfully conserved and enhanced 23,825 hectares – or 18,000 football pitches – of lowland heath.
Like chalk grassland, heathland is a “man-made” habitat only existing because our ancestors used them to dig peat for fuel, harvest heather and graze animals, unwittingly creating a unique mosaic of habitats which many plants and animals now can’t survive without.
Since 1800, around 85% of lowland heath has been lost, with the UK holding a fifth of the remaining global stock, making it one of the rarest habitats on the planet.
Thanks to the Heathlands Reunited project, there have been incredible biodiversity success stories, including the return of the woodlark to key sites, recovery of the endangered field cricket, Dartford Warbler and natterjack toad, and new habitat for the UK’s rarest lizard, the majestic sand lizard.
What’s on
- 8am – Heathlands in 360. Get up close and personal with a ‘habitat rarer than rainforest’ in this immersive film. Watch on the South Downs Facebook page and YouTube channel.
- 10.30am – 2.30pm – Heathlands Discovery Day at at Hogmoor Inclosure. Join our heathlands experts at this family-friendly pop-up event on Hogmoor Inclosure near Bordon. Free to attend and no booking necessary.