Blackwater Valley is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest between Sandhurst in Berkshire and Blackwater in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

. The River Blackwater runs through the site, which also has wet valley

alder Alders are trees comprising the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus comprises about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few sp ...

wood, swamp and

alluvial Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. All ...

meadows. The meadows have several species of flora associated with ancient grassland and they are a nationally rare and threatened habitat. An area of deciduous woodland has the rare sedge, '' Carex elongata''. The

Blackwater Valley Path The Blackwater Valley Path follows the River Blackwater from its source in the Rowhill Nature Reserve in Aldershot to just beyond the point where it joins the River Whitewater near Swallowfield to become the Broadwater. This long-distanc ...

runs through the site and part of it is the Shepherd Meadows nature reserve, which is open to the public.

References

{{SSSIs Hampshire Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Berkshire Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Hampshire