Wareham Forest is an area of countryside in

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, consisting of open

heathland A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler ...

, including

Decoy Heath Decoy Heath is an area of open heathland and bog forming part of Wareham Forest west of the Poole-Bournemouth conurbation in south Dorset, England. It is part of the Dorset Heaths. Decoy Heath is the lower part of Morden Bog, which is a National ...

and

Gore Heath Gore Heath is an area of coniferous woodland and open heathland forming part of Wareham Forest west of the Poole- Bournemouth conurbation in south Dorset, England. It is part of the Dorset Heaths and an SSSI. Gore Heath lies about 1 kilometre w ...

, and

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

s of

conifers Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All extan ...

such as Morden Heath and

Bloxworth Heath Bloxworth Heath is a four-square-mile area of heathland north of the town of Wareham in the county of Dorset, England. It is part of Wareham Forest.Forestry England Forestry England is a division of the Forestry Commission, responsible for managing and promoting publicly owned forests in England. It was formed as Forest Enterprise in 1996, before devolving to Forest Enterprise England on 31 March 2003 and ...

for

conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and managem ...

and

recreation Recreation is an activity of leisure, leisure being discretionary time. The "need to do something for recreation" is an essential element of human biology and psychology. Recreational activities are often done for enjoyment, amusement, or pleasur ...

. Situated next to the

A35 road The A35 is a major road in southern England, connecting Honiton in Devon and Southampton in Hampshire. It is a trunk road for some of its length. Most of its route passes through Dorset and the New Forest. It originally connected Exeter and So ...

between Dorchester and

Poole Poole () is a large coastal town and seaport in Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east. Since 1 April 2019, the local authority is Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Counc ...

; the forest provides a home for

sika deer The sika deer (''Cervus nippon''), also known as the Northern spotted deer or the Japanese deer, is a species of deer native to much of East Asia and introduced to other parts of the world. Previously found from northern Vietnam in the south to ...

, the

Dartford warbler The Dartford warbler (''Curruca undata'') is a typical warbler from the warmer parts of western Europe and northwestern Africa. It is a small warbler with a long thin tail and a thin pointed bill. The adult male has grey-brown upperparts and is ...

and a population of

sand lizard The sand lizard (''Lacerta agilis'') is a lacertid lizard distributed across most of Europe from France and across the continent to Lake Baikal in Russia. It does not occur in European Turkey. Its distribution is often patchy. In the sand lizard' ...

History

Wareham Forest featured in the American magazine ''Life'' on 20 October 1947. The article describes a fire that raged for four days across Wareham Heath in the summer of that year. The fire severed the road from Wareham to

Bere Regis Bere Regis () is a village and civil parish in Dorset, England, situated north-west of Wareham. In the 2011 census the civil parish had a population of 1,745. The village has one shop, a family-owned cheese barn, a post office, and two pubs ...

and exploded ammunition left behind from

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

troop manoeuvres. The photograph accompanying the ''Life'' piece shows fire-fighters trying to counteract the blaze, which saw flames leap to over 150 feet in height. Thanks to these efforts, a majority of the forest was saved. A 55-acre tourist park and campsite now makes up part of Wareham Forest. In 2012, a married couple walking their dog over the heath had to be rescued by the Dorset Fire and Rescue Service, after they became stuck in a freezing

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

. In May 2020, a large-scale fire, the Wareham Forest fire, was believed to have been started by a disposable barbecue or camp fire and worsened by warm, dry conditions. The fire left 550 acres (220 hectares) of the forest damaged.

Ecosystem

A track that passes through the site comprises part of the 'Wareham Forest Way', a walk that leads from Wareham to

Sturminster Marshall Sturminster Marshall is a village and civil parish in east Dorset in England, situated on the River Stour between Blandford Forum and Poole. The parish had a population of 1,895 at the 2001 census, increasing to 1,969 at the 2011 Census and ...

. There is also a route for cyclists called the Sika Cycle Trail. Situated to the east of the forest is Morden Bog National Nature Reserve. ''

Calluna ''Calluna vulgaris'', common heather, ling, or simply heather, is the sole species in the genus ''Calluna'' in the flowering plant family Ericaceae. It is a low-growing evergreen shrub growing to tall, or rarely to and taller, and is found ...

'' (or heather) and grasses such as ''

Molinia caerulea ''Molinia caerulea'', known by the common name purple moor-grass, is a species of grass that is native to Europe, west Asia, and north Africa. It grows in locations from the lowlands up to in the Alps. Like most grasses, it grows best in acid so ...

'' (or purple moor grass) grow readily at Wareham Forest, give

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to roam around and consume wild vegetations in order to convert the otherwise indigestible (by human gut) cellulose within grass and other ...

fodder to a population of sika. The nationally scarce Dartford warbler and the

nightjar Nightjars are medium-sized nocturnal or crepuscular birds in the family Caprimulgidae and order Caprimulgiformes, characterised by long wings, short legs, and very short bills. They are sometimes called goatsuckers, due to the ancient folk tal ...

has been observed around here, and sand lizards may also be spotted. The iconic

fly agaric ''Amanita muscaria'', commonly known as the fly agaric or fly amanita, is a basidiomycete of the genus ''Amanita''. It is also a muscimol mushroom. Native throughout the temperate and boreal regions of the Northern Hemisphere, ''Amanita muscar ...

(''Amanita muscaria''),

hallucinogenic Hallucinogens are a large, diverse class of psychoactive drugs that can produce altered states of consciousness characterized by major alterations in thought, mood, and perception as well as other changes. Most hallucinogens can be categorized ...

toadstool A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground, on soil, or on its food source. ''Toadstool'' generally denotes one poisonous to humans. The standard for the name "mushroom" is th ...

, has been recorded within the forest. In 2006 the

Journal of Zoology The ''Journal of Zoology'' is a scientific journal concerning zoology, the study of animals. It was founded in 1830 by the Zoological Society of London and is published by Wiley-Blackwell. It carries original research papers, which are targeted t ...

published the results of a nine-year study that looked into the breeding frequency of the site's smooth snakes (''

Coronella austriaca The smooth snake (''Coronella austriaca'')Street D (1979). ''The Reptiles of Northern and Central Europe''. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. 268 pp. . is a species of non-venomous snake in the family Colubridae. The species is found in northern and ce ...

'').

In fiction

The forest provides a backdrop for scenes within R. Hyslop's ''Wolf's-Head'' novel, set in the time of

Æthelwulf of Wessex C3, C-3, C.3, C03, C.III or C-III may refer to: Life and biology * C3 carbon fixation in plants * C3-convertase, an enzyme * Complement component 3, a protein of the innate immune system * Apolipoprotein C3, a human very low density lipoprotein ...

References

{{Reflist Forests and woodlands of Dorset