Your Countryside wrapped: Hampshire Countryside Service’s highlights 2023
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Dec 27 2023
This year we’ve been nurturing Hampshire’s countryside, working hard to look after nature, so nature can look after you.
Here are some of our highlights from 2023, from our incredible volunteers to wonderful wildlife, and even plans to encourage the growth of rare helleborine orchids.
We hope you have a great holiday season and a happy New Year!
Volunteers
In 2023, our 1500 volunteers carried out nearly 130,00 hours of hard work helping our rangers do a huge variety of tasks. These included things like conservation, gardening, litter picking, site maintenance and front of house activities. Our volunteers really are at the heart of everything we do, and they’re an essential part of maintaining Hampshire’s countryside. If you’d like to join our brilliant volunteers, find out how you can get involved here.
Wildlife
In August, Titchfield Haven had some exciting wildlife sightings, starting with a brown hairstreak. The butterfly was spotted on 7 August near Knights Bank Hide by a volunteer. It’s our first recorded sighting of this protected species.
Bitterns were sighted from Spurgin Hide on 14 August, with visitor Alan Langton capturing impressive photos of this usually elusive bird. We’ve been specifically managing the area in front of Spurgin Hide to attract Bitterns by encouraging reed spreading and raising the water level to increase fish and eel populations. Since then, the Bittern has been spotted multiple times.
Green Flag Awards for all our Parks
This year, all five of the County Council's Country Parks have been recognised as among the best in the world, having regained internationally recognised Green Flag awards for 2023.
Lepe, River Hamble, Royal Victoria, Queen Elizabeth and Staunton Country Parks have all scooped Green Flag status in recognition of their excellent facilities and quality maintenance. Staunton Country Park and Royal Victoria Country Park have also once again scooped Green Heritage Accreditation for the management of the sites’ unique historic features.
Red helleborine project
In September, we received £98,000 from Natural England to create protected habitats for rare red helleborine orchids.
The chalkland areas of the East Hampshire Hangers and nearby woodlands already provide a home to some of the UK’s scarcest helleborine orchids, but their numbers have been declining. This project will help protect these fragile locations and nurture the threatened helleborine orchid back from the brink of extinction.
Parish pollinators
The Parish Pollinator Network has expanded from 16 to 27 Community Groups and Town/Parish Councils. Our calendar has also been packed full of exciting events. This has included No Mow May and six enriching training sessions. We’re also continuing to distribute seeds and pollinator-friendly plants to the Pollinator Network.
Find out how you can help pollinators.
Hampshire Forest Partnership
Hampshire Forest Partnership has had a fantastic first full year, working with over 40 local groups and organisations to plant over 15,000 trees across a total of 20 projects. From Portchester to Petersfield, and Houghton to Havant, the team has supplied trees and advice across the county, supporting our goal of planting one million trees across Hampshire by 2050.
If you’d like to help us reach our aim by planting trees, then find out how you can get involved.