Sullington Warren is an area of rare and treasured lowland heath. Surrounded by development and increasingly heavily used by people to walk their dogs or just enjoy the peace and quiet, maintaining the Warren’s habitats for reptiles, birds and invertebrates is a challenge.
Little can be done to prevent harm to the Warren caused by erosion of the delicate soil by wear and unwanted fertilisation of the low nutrient soil by dog waste except to appeal to the users of the Warren to keep to established paths, to respect the by-laws and not ride bicycles, horses or any unauthorised motorised vehicle on the Warren and for dog walkers to clear up after their dogs and dispose of the waste responsibly.
What can be done is to check the growth of unwanted trees and shrubs, remove some of the unwanted vegetation already there and encourage heather to regrow on cleared areas. The Warren also boasts several Bronze Age barrows which are scheduled ancient monuments and which need to be kept clear of trees and shrubs to meet the requirements of English Heritage.
The felling of trees is sometimes unpopular. On the Warren the trees that are felled are mainly Scots pine, not a locally native species and mostly have only appeared on the Warren in the last 60 years or so.
These photographs show how the Warren has become gradually more wooded over the past few decades.