Celebrating Our Scrubland Superheroes

Since 2023, the Scrubland Superheroes Project has been working to revive precious scrubland habitat across Sussex. With backing from Natural England's Species Recovery Programme Capital Grant Scheme and powered by a remarkable coalition of dedicated volunteers and partner organisations, the project has championed and restored this often-overlooked habitat.

We’re thrilled to share the incredible achievements of the Scrubland Superheroes Project over the past 18 months, working with land managers across twelve sites around the Weald to Waves corridor. The results speak for themselves.

🛠 Restoring Scrub, Reviving Species

Scrubland is often overlooked or regarded as untidy, yet these mosaics of dense shrubs, young trees, and open areas provide food, shelter, and breeding sites for many species including the nightingale, turtle dove and brown hairstreak butterfly. The project also worked to support the potential reintroduction of species which have disappeared from our countryside, by creating habitat for the red-backed shrike and black-veined white butterfly.

Key achievements include:

• Creation or enhancement of 28 hectares of scrubland
• Planting of 327 metres of hedgerow and 4,330 tree whips
• Construction of 5 nectar enclosures and 4 scrubland enclosures
• Creation of 7 new ponds and scrapes to provide diverse habitats
• 1,225 wildflower plugs planted to provide food sources for pollinators

🔍 Powered by People and Data

The success of the project was driven by our extraordinary network of partners and volunteers. With support from organisations like Sussex Wildlife Trust, South Downs National Park Authority, the Steyning Downland Scheme, Knepp Estate, and many others, we hosted:

• 64 wildlife survey volunteering days
• Over 950 hours of habitat volunteering
• 36 invertebrate fieldwork sessions, 35 bird surveys, and 31 butterfly survey visits
• 4 student research projects and 6 public training workshops

Volunteers and professionals also employed Song Meter Micro acoustic devices to support survey efforts, remotely recording and classifying birdsong. These devices collected 593 hours of data from 72 bird species, including 15 red-listed species. All of these efforts resulted in thousands of species records submitted to the Sussex Biodiversity Records Centre, enriching our understanding of local ecology and guiding long-term habitat management.

🌱 What Comes Next?

Scrubland Superheroes is temporarily paused, while we seek new funding and plan the future of the project. We have been thrilled with the success of the project and all that it has achieved, with the most recent work being to develop and agree habitat management plans with the land managers, to ensure the new habitats continue to thrive.

If you are interested in getting involved as a volunteer or land manager with Scrubland Superheroes in the future, please get in touch!

This project has shown what’s possible when land managers, volunteers and conservationists come together. A heartfelt thank you to everyone who’s worked hard to make this a success — you truly are Scrubland Superheroes.