Poll
What has been DWT's biggest achievement in its first 50 years?
Reserves - Halsdon
Key Information
Entrance Grid reference
SS 554 131 and SS 560 117
Location
North West Devon near Dolton
Size
57.6 hectares, 142 acres
Main Type of Habitat
River, Woodland, semi-improved grassland and Culm grassland
Sponsor
PEF
The Pennon Environment Fund have awarded DWT around £5000 to spend on improving the scrapes at Halsdon along with fencing the river bank at the reserve.
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Halsdon
Halsdon nature reserve covers an extensive area of flood plain pasture and valley-side woodland alongside a 2.6 km stretch of the River Torridge. The flood plain comprises improved, semi-improved and unimproved grassland, scrub and hedge banks. The valley-side is covered by semi-natural broadleaved woodland, with smaller areas of unimproved Culm grassland, acid grassland and improved pasture.
The reserve includes a long stretch of the River Torridge, representing one of the least disturbed stretches of this important Devon river system.
The site contains a wide diversity of habitats: old, neglected oak coppice and coppice-with-standards; younger plantation, secondary woodland and scrub; areas of unimproved, semi-improved and improved pasture, including areas of rush pasture and mire (Culm grassland); the dynamic river channel; and varying bank-side vegetation.
Seasonally flooded, semi-improved valley-bottom pasture is unusual in the region, as is the extent of natural erosion and deposition which is occurring along the river course. The Culm grassland communities are representative of a vegetation type which is typical of the area but now much fragmented and restricted to parts of Devon and Cornwall.
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General guide to nature reserve
James Ravilious Photography Trail
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