Heathland Connections

Joined-up thinking to connect Surrey's heathland

One of twelve landscape-scale Nature Recovery Projects being delivered collaboratively across England, Heathland Connections is a Natural England funded, partnership-led initiative, which will deliver habitat restoration by supporting landowners to effectively manage adjoining areas of remnant heathland under their care.

By working with landowners to enhance, restore, and connect heathland areas, we aim to create a network of wildlife-rich sites that preserves the distinctive character and productive landscape of Surrey.

The work will make our heathlands more resilient to climate change and other pressures caused by human activity, as well as helping to reduce the financial and human costs of the climate and nature crisis. It is also an important step towards meeting the government-backed 30by30 goal, which aims to restore and protect 30 per cent of land and sea for nature in the UK and internationally by 2030.

View project map

Heathland Connections Network

Whether you are already part of the network or you are deciding whether or not to get involved, take a look at our map below to see who has opted in so far. Your landholdings form a key part of this bigger picture and we feel it’s important for you to have an insight into how you fit in to the wider network and who you are/could be connected with.

Please be aware that this is a working map and will continue to be developed as the project progresses. Additionally, only those who have given permission to share their landholdings will appear on the map so this will not include everyone that we are currently working with.

Take a look at the species we aim to support

In Surrey, we have some of the finest examples of lowland heathland in the UK which support a large range of species. These include the melodic Nightingale Luscinia megarhynchos, the elusive Adder Vipera berus and the cryptically camouflaged Grayling butterfly Hipparchia semele. However, these heathland reserves are fragmented and at risk, resulting in declining populations of these distinctive species. 

Take a look at these maps which demonstrate just how important it is that we preserve and connect up these fragments of habitat. Species records shown within the maps were obtained from the Surrey Biodiversity Information Centre and from recent citizen science surveys.

Management guides

Download our management guides to learn how you can manage your land for key heathland species, and access funding for habitat improvements.

Managing Land for Adders

Managing Land for Grayling Butterflies

Managing Land for Nightingales

Catch up on our past webinars

Over the past few months, we've been inviting local landowners and land managers to find out more about the project and our progress by joining one of our webinars. If you would like to watch a recording of any of these webinars, you can find them listed below:

• Introductory webinar (August 2024)
• Introductory webinar (November 2024) - please note that this was a re-run of the August webinar
• Project update webinar (January 2025)