Wildlife conservation

The borough has a fantastic variety of habitats such as ancient woodlands, calcareous grassland and iconic chalk rivers that support a wealth of wildlife. We are lucky enough to have species such as the dormouse, natterer's bat, Dartford warblers, white-letter hairstreak butterflies and large populations of great crested newts right on our doorstep.

However, species such as these are under threat on both a local and global scale from the effects of habitat loss, climate change and poor management amongst others.

There are ways in which we can all help to reduce these pressures - through conservation, awareness and volunteering; see below for some ideas.

Reduce the pressure

Biodiversity Audit

We commissioned a Biodiversity Audit of the borough, produced by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust which highlights that we we have some fantastic biodiversity features of real importance in the borough but we need to do more for our heathlands and wetlands and all their associated species.

Find a full version of the Biodiversity Audit on our Natural Environment page in the Biodiversity Strategy section

Green space volunteering

If you enjoy being outdoors in nature and want to keep fit, meet like-minded people and learn new skills, then conservation volunteering could be for you!

Take a look at our green space volunteering webpage for more information.

Wildlife gardening

Thinking of giving your garden a makeover, then why not:

plant nectar rich flowers or native trees that will look attractive and provide food and shelter for bees, butterflies, birds and mammals
create a small pond to encourage dragonflies and damselflies and provide a home for toads, frogs and newts
plant trees such as rowan or hawthorn will attract interesting birds to your garden during cold winter months

Your garden doesn’t need to be a fully-fledged nature reserve to be a place that helps our native wildlife to thrive and plants to grow.

Our Green Team offer a free garden survey for tips and ideas on how you can nurture a garden that encourages nature and helps to capture carbon to tackle climate change.

Wildlife recording

If you spot any interesting wildlife in the borough please help us to monitor how a particular species is fairing and assist in its conservation by submitting a record. You can send your record to either Hampshire Biodiversity Information Centre (HBIC) or Living Record an easy to use online recording system for regular recorders.

When you send in a record you’ll need to include the following information:

your name
the date of your observation
the precise location (include a postcode and also a grid reference if possible, for example SU123456)
the species seen (use the scientific name if known)
any additional details such as quantity, alive/dead, adult/juvenile, will also be useful

Visitor Survey

Complete our Parks and Green Spaces Visitor Survey to let us know what you think about our parks and green spaces. Your views on our parks and green spaces are important to us and will help to inform how we manage these spaces in the future.