The area where we've undertaken conifer clearance work this Autumn is now re-opened to visitors. The change is quite startling. Four areas which were previously dense and impenetrable conifer, 10ft high, are now wide open.
These areas are going to look sparse for a year or so, but then the heather, which has laid dormant below, will start to grow. in a few years time these areas will be a superb, flourishing heathland, buzzing with bees and other insects.
Thin corridors of trees have been retained along the edges of the cleared areas. These will provide routes for dormice to travel along so that they can move back into the woodland that we are restoring.
Eventually Broadwater Warren will comprise around 300 acres of heathland a scrub. This will be much closer to how the site was before the foresters moved in and planted rows and rows of pines. But it's a ten year restoration project and we still have eight years of hard work ahead of us.