The New Forest is one of Europe’s premier nature conservation sites, renowned for its vast scale, diversity and quality of habitats shaped by centuries of human interaction. A Special Area of Conservation (SAC), it covers some 29,000ha (hectares), supporting a complex mosaic of habitats formerly common in lowland western Europe but now rare and fragmented—these include extensive wet and dry heaths; valley mires; wet and dry grasslands; ancient pasture and enclosed woodland; rivers and str...
