Our work at Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve is a blend of small measures and activities to restore parts of the forest, or enhance conditions for single vulnerable species combined with much bigger actions that consider nature landscape-wide.
Along with our partners, the RSPB is committed to protecting the forest as the amazing home for nature that it is, as well as welcoming everyone to experience the wonder of the place for themselves. Here’s how we’re doing it.
Wildlife is facing huge challenges. As climate change affects the environment, and land becomes a dwindling resource, species are dying out and natural habitats are vanishing. It’s our job to protect what we can, and nature reserves and protected areas, like Sherwood, are a good start in doing this. But we also need to take on bigger challenges to make a lasting impact – looking not just at small pockets of land, but ways to connect them, and to restore and recreate landscapes that are abundant with life and provide vibrant habitats to species who need our help to survive.
An example of this is our landscape-scale conservation work which will look at the extent of what was the large Royal Hunting Forest of Sherwood. This is a big ambitious project that seeks to reinstate connecting areas of natural habitat where wildlife doesn’t just exist in pockets, but sweeps across our countryside in a better, safer, more robust and sustained home for nature. Sherwood is part of our priority landscape. Two thirds of Sherwood’s woodland and heathland have vanished in the last 300 years – we’re looking at ways to create new habitats in the best locations, make those spaces bigger and to link them to other natural habitats.
Our smaller scale work to manage the National Nature Reserve is just as vital. To begin with, our main focus will be to manage the existing ancient trees and improve growing conditions for the next generation of trees, to give them all space to thrive.
Beyond this, protection is about being a voice for nature, defending it against actions that compromise our natural habitats and the home they give to thousands of species, many under threat. These are places for us to cherish and enjoy, for ourselves as well as nature, so we use influence where we can to safeguard them for now and the future.