In May 2023, the Dartmoor Harmony choir, led by Bee Denning, visited Yarner Wood as part of NNR celebrations. They toured the oak woodland with manager Albert Knott, learning about its ecology and history, and singing in tribute to nature. Audio snippets share insights on woodland ecology, holly control, reservoir habitats, and more.Read more
Connection of People with Nature throughout time
Following an enquiry from PhD researcher Lena Ferriday (Bristol University) regarding land use in this area, a site visit was arranged for 8th January. Albert Knott invited three volunteers with an interest in local heritage to take part in a guided walk with Lena to look at ways humans have shaped the landscape of Yarner Wood. Lena’s research project explores the ways in which the environments of Devon and Cornwall were used for the extractive industries of fishing and mining,Read more
A big thank you to all our wonderful volunteers
Natural England is lucky enough to have a keen committed number of volunteers who help undertake all aspects of activities on the Dartmoor National Nature Reserves. These include bird box monitoring and breading bird surveys, butterfly transects and species counts, otter spotting, blue ground beetle counts, dormouse surveying, flying insect DNA plating, moth recording, estate maintenance, hedging, physical habitat management, assisting with events, monitoring of woodland and even helping with filing of information and being our eyes and ears on theRead more
Education, education, education
Here are three examples of how Natural England have connected people with nature. The first is an inspiring the next generation through a school visit only achieved thanks to our wonderful volunteers. The second is through a ringing demonstration which allowed people to get really close to birds and the final facilitation of an art therapy workshop. School Visit We were delighted to welcome a group of year 5 students and their teachers from Sacred Heart RC Primary School inRead more
Art in the Park
Natural England have foster relationships with artist in Yarner Wood while it has been a / part of a National Nature Reserve. Here are some examples of more recent temporary uses of the site. Karen Pearson 2012- 2014 Three years of contemporary art collaboration at Yarner Wood and its surrounding Karen Pearson, a local Devon based artist worked closely with the Natural England team based at Yarner Wood and other artists across solo projects and group events between 2012-14. MostRead more
A day of invertebrate sampling with Natural England: helping the Sanger Institute with The BIOSCAN Project
An introduction to invertebrate surveying Invertebrates are hugely significant within the ecosystem globally, as they form the basis level of many food chains. Without invertebrates, the trophic levels above would ultimately suffer and then collapse, leading to trophic cascades and ecosystem collapse. Immense pressure is building upon invertebrates, primarily driven by global agricultural intensification, habitat loss and the likely prospect that global average temperatures will rise above 1.5 degrees in the coming decades and get to 2 degrees by theRead more
East Dartmoor Woods blog 