The Action for Biodiversity Project at the Woodland Education Centre, Offwell

The Woodland Education Centre is tucked away in a secluded valley just outside the village of Offwell, near Honiton. It is a relatively small site of 50 acres, but within this there is a huge diversity of different habitats and wildlife, all waiting to be enjoyed and explored.

The Centre occupies what was once part of the gardens of Offwell House. In the early 19th. Century, Dr Coplestone, Bishop of Llandaff and Dean of St. Pauls Cathedral until his death in 1849, owned the house and surrounding land and turned the valley into pleasure gardens, creating many walkways and other features including two boating lakes. He planted many exotic species, including Rhododendron ponticum, which had been introduced from Asia and was a very fashionable shrub at this time because of its beautiful mauve flowers and evergreen foliage. The site ceased to be gardens in the early 1900s, when it came to be owned by the Forestry Commission who planted mixed conifers within the valley.

The Woodland Education Centre, which was set up over 20 years ago by the Offwell Woodland and Wildlife Trust, leases the site from the Forestry Commission. The main task for the Trust has been to restore the diverse habitats from a desert of rhododendron which had spread over 90% of the site. Although this species of rhododendron has beautiful flowers for two weeks each year, it spreads relentlessly to produce a dense, dark, smothering vegetation cover, offering very little benefit to wildlife. Once the rhododendron had been cleared, the ponds, leat, wetland area and lake were all restored, native broadleaved woodland returned, a heathland was cleared, and a hazel coppice area was planted. Some rhododendron still remains, but the wildlife that has returned is remarkable: evidence of dormice is regularly found in the hazel coppice; glow-worms are seen in the grassy rides; marbled white butterflies flit around the heathland slope, and kingfishers, herons, and grey wagtails are all present, among many other bird species.

The Centre is primarily an outdoor education resource for primary and secondary schools, colleges, universities and adult education students. It offers pond-dipping, woodland discovery trails, and shelter-building, as well as the opportunity of studying the ecology of heathland, woodland, and wetland habitats.

The Centre has recently undergone some changes. Steve Lawson, who was the Trust Director, and whose vision created the Centre, has left to pursue new challenges, as has the Education Officer, Dr Barbara Corker.

The Trustees have taken up the reins, supported by Dougal Syers who is now based at the Log Cabin, and is continuing to develop the website and educational resources, and Lucy Morton, the Community Officer responsible for the Action for Biodiversity project, also based at the Log Cabin, part-time. The Centre is fully operational and looking forward to a full season of school visits and events.

The Action for Biodiversity Project is a two-year Heritage Lottery-funded project, and its aim is to engage and involve volunteers and visitors of all ages and abilities in the Centre.The role of Community Officer is to recruit volunteers to help with all aspects of conservation management, whether carrying out practical tasks or surveying the wildlife. We have a small regular group who come out every Wednesday; their tasks include cutting and burning rhododendron, pulling saplings, heathland management, clearing vegetation from the leat banks, and general site maintenance. The bank clearance work ties in well with that of the East Devon District Council Water Vole Reintroduction Project, and Mervyn Newman, the Project Officer, brought a team to the Centre in January to continue with the clearance work. The Sustainable Development Fund from the East Devon AONB has also helped enormously by running woodland skills events, and last summer a bat survey, part of the AONB’s Greater Horseshoe Bat project, excitingly revealed Leisler’s Bat – never before recorded in Devon. There will more bat events, moth trapping evenings, and other survey work at the Centre this summer. We have recently put up some more bird and bat boxes, including a Tawny Owl box, and these will be monitored throughout the summer.

The Centre relies enormously on volunteer help, and we are looking specifically for a volunteer to take on the task of coordinating the volunteers and the work tasks towards the end of this year. We are also looking for help on the office side for a few hours each week. If you are interested in these opportunities, or would like to get involved in any of the activities at the Centre, please contact Lucy Morton, Community Officer, on 01404 831881 Mon-Wed 9am – 5 pm), or e-mail offwell5@aol.com. Also please look at the website (www.countrysideinfo.co.uk) for upcoming events and our Free Family Activity Days throughout the summer holidays.