Natural Environment Conservation - Homepage

Heritage and conservation are always interwined, but on this page we shall look primarily at conservation of the natural environment, not forgetting that today's natural environment owes its status to historical management by our predecessors.

Yateley Common has officially existed since time immemorial. This is not some meaningless phrase to indicate 'a long time ago', it is a legal phrase meaning all the time before the accession of Richard I (the Lionheart) in 1189. In fact mankind has been present on Yateley Common since mesolithic times, as a team of archaeologists under Carol White is currently discovering. For thousands of years Yateley Common has been an environment managed by man to graze domestic animals. Centuries of management resulted in it becoming the open heathland which many older people in Yateley still remember - acres of heather and low gorse, not a tree in sight, views for miles. Lack of grazing since World War II has resulted in the growth of trees and scrubland for the first time in thousands of years.

Lowland heath is a very rare habitat. Yateley Common was first protected legally in 1979 by being designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) by the UK Government. At the time of publication of the draft First Hart District Plan in 1982 the Yateley Common SSSI was larger than all the other three SSSIs in Hart put together, and one of those was Hazeley Heath, another extremely important area of lowland heath. Together they made up 91% of Hart's SSSIs. Today all the lowland heath SSSIs in Hart are protected by European Directives and form an important part of the Thames Basins Heaths Special Protection Area for Wild Birds. This SPA covers heathland within 11 Local Planning Authorities, and comprises nearly 1,000 hectares of rare habitat. This huge area is specifically protected as the habitat of 3 rare birds, but it must never be forgotten that the SSSI status also protects many rare species listed in the so-called Red Book of internationally species near extinction.

The most important fact to remember is that lowland heath has always been a habitat managed by man. If that management ceases, the rare habitat will disappear, together with the rare species which depend on it. The main conservation issue is therefore how to manage the habitat to prevent further deterioration. This means managing the site itself, but also managing the destructive effects caused by nearby populations.

Read how and why you can take a personal part in the management of Yateley Common by clicking Yateley Society Conservation Group

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