Green Hill Farm Biodiversity Report 2025
- Russell Wynn
- 17 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Russell Wynn, 16 April 2026
The Green Hill Farm Biodiversity Report 2025 is now available for download as a PDF at the link below:
In addition, the Executive Summary of the report is copied below:
This 2025 Biodiversity Report for Green Hill Farm (Landford, New Forest) provides an overview of ecological survey and monitoring work conducted in 2025, and forms part of a long-term Biodiversity Enhancement Plan for the site that is being delivered by Wild New Forest.
The report focusses on an area called the ‘conservation fields’ that are primarily managed to deliver Biodiversity Net Gain; these fields cover nearly 11 ha, i.e. about one-third of the overall site area.
A total of 16 hours of fieldwork was delivered in 2025, including walkover surveys in every season, supplemented by deployment of an acoustic bat detector in the conservation fields for 24 nights.
A total of 68 new species was recorded across the whole site in 2025, bringing the 2023-25 species total to 914 species using all survey methods, including 30 priority species of high conservation interest. A total of 774 species has been recorded from the conservation fields alone, including 20 priority species.
A whole-site breeding bird survey recorded 25 breeding bird species and a total of 151 occupied territories, which is a >20% increase on the 2023 total. Stonechats are now a well-established breeding bird with four pairs in 2025, of which three pairs were in the conservation fields.
Notable non-breeding birds included Hobby, Kingfisher, and Woodlark, with the latter including four juveniles seen dust-bathing on a mown path in the conservation fields on 11 Aug 2025. In addition, both Grass Snake and Slow-worm have established new populations in the conservation fields.
The acoustic bat detector recorded over 13,400 individual bat passes, with seven bat species recorded with high confidence. Most records (88%) related to Common Pipistrelle, but the red-listed Serotine was also frequent, averaging over 20 detections per night, and there were 11 detections of the red-listed Barbastelle.
The drought of spring-summer 20205 may have contributed to reduced numbers of Southern Marsh-orchid in the northern conservation field, but Pyramidal Orchid numbers were comparable to previous years. The Bee Orchids seen in 2025 did not reappear.
Fungi records included a cluster of the nationally scarce Alder Scalycap in the northern conservation field, and the uncommon Wrinkled Fieldcap on woodchip mulch on the main site.
The cessation of annual cutting and grazing means the southern and central conservation fields are seeing a gradual increase in bracken, bramble, and gorse scrub, and development of areas of seasonally-wet rush pasture with abundant Common Fleabane; these new habitats are supporting a wide variety of invertebrates such as nectar-feeding butterflies and hoverflies.
The botanically-rich fen habitats in the northern conservation field, and adjacent areas of the main site, are being progressively encroached by willow and non-native conifers and will require management intervention to prevent succession to damp woodland.
These annual biodiversity reports feature in the annual Lovat Parks Positive Impact Summary (see here) and are being used to raise awareness of on-site biodiversity and conservation management. Guided wildlife walks for lodge owners are again scheduled for spring and autumn 2026.