Imagine a woodland full of life, surrounded by miles of open, intensively farmed fields and busy roads. For some species, that wood is an island they can never leave. Small, isolated populations are vulnerable: they can run short of food or mates, they cannot recolonise after a bad winter or an outbreak of disease, and they have nowhere to go when conditions change.
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The problem of fragmentation
Habitat fragmentation, the breaking up of large areas of habitat into small, separate patches, is one of the biggest threats to wildlife in the UK. It affects species in different ways:
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Hazel dormice spend most of their lives in the tree canopy and are reluctant to cross open ground. A gap in a hedgerow or a stretch of road can cut a population in two.
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Bats use hedgerows and lines of trees to navigate between roosts and feeding areas. Remove them and the bats may stop using the area.
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Otters and beavers depend on rivers and wetlands that run unbroken through the landscape.
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Butterflies such as the small pearl-bordered fritillary tend to stay close to where they emerge, so they need suitable habitat patches close together.
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Corridors and stepping stones
A wildlife corridor is a strip of habitat that links larger areas: a hedgerow, a woodland belt, a river with wide, vegetated banks, a field margin or an uncut road verge. A stepping stone is a smaller patch, such as a pond, a copse or a wildflower meadow, that lets animals and plants hop from one place to the next. Together they help wildlife move through the landscape.
Climate change adds to the urgency. As conditions shift, many species will need to move to survive, and they can only do so if there is somewhere for them to go.
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Thinking at landscape scale
In 2010, a review for the government led by Professor Sir John Lawton, Making Space for Nature, concluded that England’s wildlife sites were too small, too few and too isolated. Its answer was to create more, bigger, better and more connected areas for nature. Today the idea underpins the Nature Recovery Network and the Local Nature Recovery Strategies introduced by the Environment Act 2021, which map the places where action for nature would do the most good.
Working at this scale means collaborating across boundaries, because wildlife does not recognise property lines. At Cowley Wood our work forms part of the Arlington Landscape Recovery Scheme, which is restoring wildlife habitats across the wider area. At Cove Down we are working in partnership with neighbouring landowners. At Reapham Wood, the woodland sits beside the River Bray, where signs of otters are often found along the river corridor.
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Trees, hedges and our planting
Trees can be powerful connectors, especially where they link existing woods or widen narrow strips of habitat. Native trees suited to the site, planted in the right place, give birds, bats, dormice and insects somewhere to feed and travel. In February 2025 we invited supporters to a tree-planting day at Baronsdown, 100 insert species of trees planted, and which habitats they connect.
The key is the right tree in the right place. Species-rich grassland, heathland and wetland are valuable habitats in their own right and are not improved by trees. Good connection means the right habitat in the right place, not simply more trees.
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What you can do
Connected landscapes are built from many small pieces, and gardens are part of the picture. Leave a gap at the bottom of a fence for hedgehogs, plant a native hedge, let a corner of lawn grow long or add a pond.
Wildlife-friendly gardening and making space for nature at home
