About the reserve

Woorgreens features a large lake, marshland, heathland and scrub woodland. It has pools and ditches, which provide shelter, hunting ground and breeding sites for damselfly and dragonfly, as well as the great-crested newt.

Heathland is characterised by poor acidic soils, which are dominated with ling, bell heather and gorse, in turn providing homes for common lizards, slow worms, grass snakes and adders. The open heath and woodland edge attract a number of birds like stonechat, redpoll, cuckoo, and siskin, and hobbies can be seen chasing dragonflies over the lake in the late summer. The nature reserve also provides the right conditions for a range of fungi like salmon salad and collared earthstar fungi. Yellow brain fungus can be found on the dead branches of gorse and bay boletes are found under the pine trees. 

Woorgreens is carefully managed to protect its heathland, with Highland cattle, Hebridean and Herdwick sheep, and Exmoor ponies brought in at certain times of the year. They are the key players in a conservation grazing programme across GWT reserves, which allows for a bigger and more connected approach to open habitats.

Deer and wild boar are also known to frequent the nature reserve, while great grey shrike arrive in autumn to spend the winter here.

History

Open cast mine workings are responsible for the landscape seen at Woorgreens, which has gradually been reclaimed by the natural world over many years. A nature reserve was created in 1981, growing from a seven-hectare lake to more than 50 hectares of mixed open habitats.

GWT staff and volunteers have been cutting back invasive birch trees for more than a decade in order to create a more open landscape that can be managed using conservation grazing; the team continue to cut back tall gorse scrub and bracken on a regular basis.