On a wet day in December the New Ponds flourish (almost to bursting) and Bat Park turns into a wetland. How our climate is changing. In the summer both will be bone dry.

This week I return to Bat Park which is now in its winter drab, however lots of interesting things are going on there and I am full of enthusiasm for the coming spring.

To make improvements to the ecology of Wilderness Wood we need to attract suitable funding. Funders inevitably want to know the details of any given project and its environmental impact. An ecological survey, even for a relatively small project, is a not uncommon requirement. Here’s how it might be done.

Creating a wildlife pond requires a reliable source of water (a challenge at Wilderness Wood in the summer time), you also need to populate it with freshwater invertebrates. The proof of the pudding is in the eating and the writing utensils are essential.

Rhododendron ponticum threatens woodland habitats all over the UK, although mostly along the western side of the country. Rhodie bashing is an important part of our woodland management activities.

Understanding basic hydrology is vital to the management of water as it passes through a woodland ecosystem. Woodland should not just be managed for the benefit of wildlife on-site, but with regard to responsibility for the welfare of those downstream - in fact for the whole of the UK and beyond.

A full pond is as satisfying as a full fridge after a Sainsbury shopping spree. Charged with all of the things necessary for feeding insect larvae and the rest of the Wilderness Wood family of wildlife.

October is a time of major change in the woods. The flowers of the summer are fading fast, replaced by the mysterious fungi which love the cool damp autumnal weather. Rain has returned with a vengeance, filling our ponds and turning the once dry Wilderness Stream into a trickle. Winter promises new challenges as the stream swells to bank-full from the winter rains.

A visit by Sussex Wildlife Trust’s ‘The Wilder Ouse’ Project Officer enables us to showcase our conservation credentials to an important local environmental organisation.

Developing an acid lowland grassland at Bat Park, Wilderness Wood has been a challenge to encourage a unique grassland habitat in the middle of a Wealden woodland.

Leaky Dam’s are something of a speciality at Wilderness Wood, where we have built over 100 to-date. We offer visitors a Leaky Dam Trail guide. Ask at ‘The Hatch’.

Wilderness Wood is not only a wildlife habitat, but also a working woodland, much of it managed for timber production. The challenge has to be balancing these in order to enable both to flourish.

The first day of autumn shows little change after the recent summer heat, but recent rains are sure to hasten changes as winter creeps up on us.

Woodlands are dominated by trees, but how do they grow, what uses can they be put to and what interactions can we find there?

Catsear - one of the increasing number of wildflowers starting to appear at the Bat Park due to the acid lowland grassland project

A walk in the rain reveals all sorts of surprises most fair weather explorers never get to see.

Mondays bring a welcome quiet to the woods with plenty of plants to be spotted

Different habitats have to be managed in quite different ways

Ash Dieback - a natural phenomenon, or human agency?

The completed Wilderness Bridge - at the bottom of Hemlock Valley, crossing the Wilderness Stream