New woodland unveiled at Devon park after major three-year restoration

A landmark nature project in Devon has reached its conclusion with the planting of a new native woodland, marking the final stage of a three-year restoration at Stover Country Park.

The initiative, which has seen extensive improvements to the park's historic landscape, lake, and visitor trails, culminated last week as volunteers and local schoolchildren planted the final trees in a newly created habitat.

Supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the project has transformed the park through a combination of professional conservation work and deep-rooted community involvement.

At the heart of the project’s legacy is a unique "seed to sapling" scheme. Working in partnership with the Devon Wildlife Trust’s Saving Devon’s Treescapes project, pupils from Bearnes Voluntary Primary School and Stover Prep School spent three years germinating and nurturing seeds collected within the park grounds.

These home-grown trees, alongside thousands of additional saplings provided by The Tree Council and National Highways, have now been established in a new broadleaved woodland between the Stover Centre and the lake.

Environmental experts say the new woodland will act as a vital green lung for the county.

"The new woodland will create an important habitat for wildlife and significantly improve the biodiversity, and at the same time help mop up carbon from the atmosphere," said Councillor Jacqi Hodgson, Devon County Council’s cabinet member for climate change and biodiversity.

"It’s a great addition to this incredible green space and there’s no doubt it will be an important asset for future generations."

Project organisers noted that beyond the ecological benefits, the three-year effort has provided hundreds of local volunteers with hands-on training in conservation and woodland management.

With the final trees now in the ground, the project organisers are looking to the future, as the newly planted area matures into a permanent fixture of Devon’s natural landscape.