September 2025 Newsletter
The events season is largely over, and it looks like the summer has departed with it! Conservation groups are all now starting to run their autumn/ winter work parties, but we are a hardy bunch who are used to working in the rain.
Due to the dry summer, the Rangers were able to make good progress on mowing with a lot less challenges than were faced last year and this is now almost complete. Seed harvesting was a different story, many seeds germinated early and were of poor quality, never-the-less, a good quantity of Yellow Rattle was brush harvested and NB was able to restock on seeds of most key species by manual harvesting (many thanks to everyone who took part in this).
There are a couple more events due to take place in the coming weeks, see below for more information. In terms of skills training, a follow up is planned on the seed training conducted earlier in the year and we are also planning a practical session on dead hedging.
In addition to our own work parties, we are also supporting a couple for other landowners:
- Hants Cultural Trust (Basing House) – Alan will be leading coppicing and dead-hedging sessions at the tithe barn on the second Sunday of every month (these will run from 10-3 and people can drop in at any time). We completed our first session on Sunday 14th September, many thanks to all those who came along to help. If you’d like to take part in future sessions, please let me know, via: admin@naturalbasingstoke.org.uk
- Candover Farm Cluster – Thanks to HWNG for the introduction to this group. Jack is leading on supporting them with regular mammal footprint surveys and will also be arranging some a live hedge- building sessions. If you’d like to take part, please contact jackbence@naturalbasingstoke.org.uk
The big challenge of the moment is planning, the Government has mandated that 16,000 homes must be built in the borough over the next 18 years. Further information on our response to this can be found in the newsletter.
As always, I’d love to feature interesting news from all groups in the future. If you’d like to include something in a future newsletter, please contact me via the email address below.
Best wishes Gill
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Latest News
NB Groups
Hatch Warren
In August, volunteers from several groups got together to support Hatch Warren Nature Group (HWNG) with raking up arisings at Dorrells Bank. Excellent progress was made on the day, and this provides a good example of what volunteers can achieve when they work together. If any group has a similar project where they would appreciate help from other groups, please get in touch.
Hatch Warren is also the location of the Biodiversity Improvement Zone (BIZ) project which explores how the use of more tailored mowing approaches can improve habitats (and the associated biodiversity) across green spaces within our local housing estates. The next phase of this project is about to start and will be jointly designed and managed by BDBC and NB/ HWNG. Watch this space for more information.
Daniel Park
Daniel Park held a successful public bat walk in August, with members of the local community coming out to join. They saw/heard mostly pipistrelles and noctules, as well as hearing little owls and tawny owls! Plans are also afoot for an autumn event celebrating their orchard.
Rangers’ update
There is a new volunteer group being set up near Newbury, to help manage Little Pen Wood. Their first session will be on Saturday 27th September. [Editor’s note: Alan Wilkinson and I supported a community event nearby in the summer and it was well attended, so hopefully we have the makings of an enthusiastic new volunteer group].
The Rangers are making great headway with their mowing schedule and are on track to get everything completed by the end of September. Their swift progress has been helped by a dry summer and the addition of two more cut and collect machines to the fleet.
Now that bird-nesting season has come to a close, felling season has begun. The Rangers will be felling trees for the purposes of, increasing heathland habitat, removing non-native trees, and improving habitat suitability for interesting ground flora. [Editor’s note: This activity forms part of the annual work plans for relevant groups].
We’re also approaching the end of the survey season. It has been a hugely successful year with notable new species found on some sites. For example, Brown Hairstreak have been found on Mill Field for the first time, Slow Worms were found at Daniel Park, a Grass Snake at Little Pen Wood and Hazel Dormice were found on Sherfield Park, Crabtree, and Little Pen Wood! [Editor’s note: Surveying is a great way to measure our impact and there will be lots more of it in the future].
| Charlie and her ‘pet dormouse’ | Dormouse Footprints | Brown Hairstreak at Mill Field |
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Voice for Nature
Local Plan
As mentioned in previous newsletters, BDBC is required to update its Local Plan, for housebuilding, to reflect the increased housing target for our borough, imposed by the Government. Following proposals from developers, BDBC has published the list of the sites that it is putting forward for inclusion in the updated Local Plan. The report can be found here: https://democracy.basingstoke.gov.uk/documents/g2759/Public%20reports%20pack%2004th-Sep- 2025%2018.30%20Environment%20and%20Infrastructure%20Committee.pdf?T=10
Natural Basingstoke will be responding to the public consultation on the Local Plan Update, which is due to take place in October/ November and we have built our own model to assess the degree to which each proposed location impacts on biodiversity. Our aim is to ensure that sites where development will have the worst impact on biodiversity are declined, and other impacted sites are subject to landscape-scale plans to establish ‘corridors’ to minimise the impact on local habitats and species.
Local Nature Recovery Strategy
The next draft of the Local Nature Recovery Strategy for Hampshire is due to be published in the autumn. There will not be any further public consultation, so we are following up with Hampshire County Council and local Councillors to press for the plan to contain concrete actions and establish networks for nature on all sides of Basingstoke.
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
This has been mentioned in past newsletters and, as you will have gathered, I am not a fan. All went quiet over the summer parliamentary recess; however, things seem to be starting up again and we will shortly be contacting Luke Murphy MP for an update on the actions he took from his meeting with us on this topic. There are many concerns about this bill but the main one is that it appears undermine the obligation on developers to follow what is known as the mitigation hierarchy. This requires developers to take steps to minimise the impact of development on biodiversity, in the following order of priority avoid development, mitigate harms and (as a last resort) compensate for ecological impact.
Nature Notes
You’ve got some gall
Couldn’t resist the pun, I’m afraid. It’s the time of year where there is lots of evidence of galls and although we’ve covered them before , they are sufficiently interesting to warrant a replay.
A gall is a chemically induced distortion caused most frequently by a small wasp, whose larvae live and feed inside the gall until they hatch into an adult wasp. Galls can also be caused by mites, fungi and some bacteria or viruses. They appear on more than half of all plant families and do not generally harm the host species.
All these Galls were photographed by Alan Wilkinson and are easily seen on most of our Nature Reserves at this time of the year.
| Robin’s Pin Cushion Gall on Dog Rose | Sputnik Gall on Dog Rose | 3 species of Spangle Gall on Oak leaf |
| Training Courses/ Events Training/ Events – Dates for your diary 20th September (10.30-3) – HIWWT Space for Nature Mini-Conference*, St Mark’s Hall (Kempshott) – A county-wide wildlife trust event that happens to be taking place in our area. 27th September (10-2) – BIZ Drop-in Event, Hatch Warren Community Centre – This is directed at local residents rather than our groups but feel free to drop by to find out more about the BIZ project and meet with HWNG group. September to March, second Sunday of the Month (drop-in between 10am-3pm) – Basing House coppicing and dead hedging TBC – Dead hedging training TBC – Seed Training (Part 2), classroom-based training * Link for booking a place on Hants & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust event: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/space-for-nature-mini-conference-tickets- 1610484284849?aff=oddtdtcreator&fbclid=IwY2xjawMlPMdleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETE0MVJWN1oyQkpza1BlRE9xAR7QJhumos g5cGsVfMAhwEgD1eOKanUHcC0EQejhWRJvuPOL7_FxJrpzcUqIow_aem_dGIj2nAk3tptJx0jPnE-eA Reminders….. Natural Basingstoke website Thanks to those of you who provided the dates for your 2025/6 work parties, we are in the process of updating the website to capture them. A quick reminder, if you have not already done so, please check the dates for your work parties via the link below and let us have any updates: https://naturalbasingstoke.org.uk/events/ | ||
| Website: https://naturalbasingstoke.org.uk/ | Facebook: Natural Basingstoke | |