Local Wildlife Site

Accessible Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation

Coppett's Wood and Scrublands Local Nature Reserve
Borough: Barnet
Grade: Borough Grade I
Access: Free public access (all/most of site)
Area: 14.48 ha

Description

These two complementary nature reserves provide a range of wildlife habitats. Coppett’s Wood has a small pond in the northwest corner, and the Scrublands reserve occupies a former sewage works. The site was declared a Local Nature Reserve in 1997.

Wildlife

Coppett's Wood is secondary woodland with a canopy dominated by pedunculate oak and hornbeam, with smaller quantities of other trees. The shrub layer consists of hazel, hawthorn, holly, elder and elm. There is also an unusual population of juneberry, now firmly established having been introduced. The ground flora includes bluebell, garlic mustard, lords-and-ladies, male-fern, broad buckler-fern and hart's-tongue fern. Breeding birds in the woodland include all three British woodpeckers, tawny owl, sparrowhawk, nuthatch and treecreeper. The pond features a clump of yellow iris, as well as breeding common frogs and smooth newts. Scrublands has a mosaic of habitats, supporting a few rare or unusual plants such as imperforate St John's-wort, downy rose, sweet briar, hare's-foot clover and bee orchid. This is also an excellent place for insects, and the reserve supports several rare species. Birds nesting in the scrub include goldfinch and common and lesser whitethroats.

Facilities

Information (on signs).
Volunteers erecting an owl nest box in Coppett's Wood © Oliver Natelson

Volunteers erecting an owl nest box in Coppett’s Wood © Oliver Natelson
Bee orchid © Mike Waite

Bee orchid © Mike Waite

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More information on GiGL’s SINC dataset can be found here.

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