Higher Level Stewardship

Today we have an important announcement to do with the future of Foxglove. Today, Monday 1st. March, we have entered into an agreement with Natural England to be part of their Higher Level Stewardship scheme. This scheme assures Foxglove of funding for the next 10 years and will bring massive benefits to the reserve.

It also provides a degree of certainty for the future and will mean significant habitat enhancement and expenditure on capital projects, particularly to do with access and education.

We will give you more details as we can and further news can be found in the Spring edition of Undergrowth, which will be published in the next week or so.

As you can imagine this is momentous news for Foxglove as a whole and there will be changes to the reserve, which will start to happen shortly.

As ever, nature marches on, and today has been particularly Spring-like. The Hazel catkins (above) are open and their pollen is spreading on the slighest breeze.

The furry buds of the Pussy Willow are emerging from their sheaths and everywhere there are signs of growth. Although the flowers are few at the moment, Gorse and Hazel being the only ones out, there are rosettes of Teasel, Hemp Agrimony and Thistle to see. The pale green hearts of Wood Sorrel are speckling the woodland floor and the spikey leaves of the Bluebells are at last poking through the leaf litter.

Forest School were here again. 6 teachers came to find out about teaching children about nature and the environment. As you see them here Hazel had been showing them how to make wooden book covers from split logs of Silver Birch.