Background of the project

The unusual combination of habitats in the New Forest is maintained largely by the presence of commoners' grazing ponies and cattle. European dry heath gives way to Northern Atlantic wet heath on the poorly drained soils which often fringe the valley mires, and includes a range of different plant communities such as depressions on peat substrates of the Rhyncosporion, alkaline fens and transition mires.

The wet acid grasslands include purple moor grass Molinia meadows on calcareous, peaty or clayey-silt-laden soils (Eumolinion). The woodlands are dominated by old acidophilous oak woods with Quercus robur on sandy plains and Atlantic acidophilous beech forests with holly Ilex and sometimes also yew Taxus in the shrub layer.

The New Forest also supports internationally important populations of nightjars, woodlarks, Dartford warblers, honey buzzards and hen harriers as well as otter, bats, reptiles, amphibians and fish.

The heathland/grassland/mire mosaic is the largest single unit of similar habitat remaining in lowland England (14,800ha). There is no similar equivalent example of the series of mire systems in Europe. More than 4,000ha of pasture woodland is the largest remaining woodland of its type in Western Europe. The woodlands include fine examples of rare habitats such as alder woodlands on floodplains and bog woodlands that survive within relatively pristine and unpolluted catchments.