Overview of the West Weald Landscape Project area
WWLP covers a large area of 240 square kilometres (nearly 60,000 acres)
at the western end of the Low Weald, north of the town of Petworth.
The Low Weald of West Sussex and south Surrey is a diverse rural landscape
that is one of the most wooded parts of the UK, covering a third of the
area of which two-thirds is ‘ancient’ woodland dating back
many centuries. The West Weald is hence a valuable example of a relatively
natural forest landscape in the built-up region of south-east England.
At the heart of this area lie internationally important examples of old-growth
forest and pasture woodland at The Mens and Ebernoe Common (both designated
European Special Areas of Conservation) that are managed as Sussex Wildlife
Trust nature reserves.
Significant populations of rare species are present, including fourteen of the UK’s seventeen species of bats and threatened species of woodland birds and butterflies such as lesser spotted woodpecker and wood white. Several important species have needs beyond the sites where they live, and hence require a landscape-scale focus for their conservation. For example, the rare barbastelle bat 'commutes' nightly along bushy hedgerows and woodland corridors to feed over different wetland areas. These corridors have been mapped and represent ecological networks along which we are targeting habitat improvements.
The four ‘core forest areas’ that have been identified,
corresponding to significant concentrations of woodland and other habitats,
as the key nodes in the landscape to focus conservation efforts on are:
1. Ebernoe
2. The Mens
3. Chiddingfold Forest (on the Surrey-Sussex border)
4. SW Greensand Ridge (to the north-east of Midhurst)
People are of course inextricably linked to our landscape's past, present
and future, much of which remains relatively unchanged since medieval
times due to a lengthy continuity in traditional land management which
we wish to see maintained.
