Hazeley Wood, a 10.6ha area of plantation woodland,  was planted in 1991 on a former wheat field by The Parks Trust.

The Society was involved from the outset MKNHS  to monitor changes in biodiversity as the wood developed. Major studies were conducted in 1994 and 2006. The 2015 Study is planned as the next in this series.

Oak, Hornbeam and Birch were planted, and in the mid 1990s attempts were made to speed up colonisation by woodland and woodland edge flora by deliberate seeding – with limited success.

Subsequently trees have been thinned, and a few Hornbeams coppiced – this work largely occurred in 2007. Our 2006 Survey was designed to record the situation immediately prior to this.

At the invitation of The Parks Trust, members of the MKNHS formed a group of volunteer  surveyors who studied as many of the ecological aspects of the site as they could in the years 1993, 1994 and 1995.  Each gives a ‘snapshot’ of the ecology of the site in the immediate post-planting years, providing the essential baseline data against which to monitor future changes.  It is the intention that a series of such publications will eventually be used to prepare  a monograph on the ecology of a developing woodland in the long  term.

Since these early studies  the Parks Trust has commissioned a survey of the moths in 1999, the field layer  vegetation 10 years on in 2001 (including measuring the success of introduced  woodland species) and butterflies in 2002/2003.

For more details on about Hazeley Wood see the Hazeley Wood page in the Around MK menu

In 2006, 15 years had  passed since the planting of the trees and therefore time for another ‘snapshot’ of the ecological status of the site.  Surveys have been completed and now the individual reports have been published.

Annual Report No. 3 Published August 2008

Click on the icons below to open the survey (PDF documents).

Hazeley Wood 2006 Report Part 1

        Hazeley Wood 2006 Report Part 2

Part 1 (6.7 Mb)  Part 2 (0.8 Mb)