New Forest Volunteer Ecological Surveyor Programme - 2025 review and 2026 preview

Prof Russell Wynn, 02 March 2026

Introduction

Biological recording in the UK is heavily reliant upon volunteers, both for data collection and for the running of county and national recording schemes. These data underpin reginal and national assessments, research, and policy, e.g. Local Nature Recovery Strategies (see here) and State of Nature assessments (see here).

The New Forest is a popular location for wildlife enthusiasts, but recording effort tends to be heavily biased towards popular locations and species groups. This means that contemporary data for many species groups of national and international importance are sparse, making it hard to design and deliver appropriate conservation management for those species.

The New Forest Volunteer Ecological Surveyor Programme (VESPA) aims to increase the quantity and quality of biological data collected from the New Forest National Park, and to increase the capacity and capability of the local community to collect these data. To facilitate this, we have developed a five-year partnership agreement with Forestry England that provides the required insurance cover, risk assessments, and volunteer policies, enabling registered VESPA participants to conduct ecological surveys on the Crown Lands of the New Forest. VESPA is part of the New Forest Biodiversity Forum, which is generously sponsored by Kairos Philanthropy, meaning that registration and participation in VESPA activities is free.

Further details about VESPA, including registration information, can be found here.

2025 review

2025 was a pilot year for VESPA, with the first scheduled activities commencing in mid-May and continuing through to mid-November. A series of 12 field-based survey and training sessions were delivered, with a total of 500 volunteer-hours logged.

By the end of 2025 we had nearly 100 registered VESPA participants, including 20 signed up to conduct wetland plant surveys with our partners at Freshwater Habitats Trust. Our registrants are a highly diverse group that include students, rangers, retirees, commoners, and wildlife enthusiasts of all experience levels. It has been great to see the informal information exchange between these different elements of the forest community during VESPA survey and training sessions. A blog summarising summer 2025 VESPA activities is available here.

VESPA survey and training session in Shave Wood on 20 Sept 2025 (photo: Russell Wynn)

In autumn 2025, we conducted an additional six survey and training sessions focussed on ancient woodland habitats. These produced a nice variety of nationally rare and scarce fungi species, including Candelabra Coral, Greasy Bracket, Scaly Spark, Spongy Mazegill, Tiered Tooth, and Zoned Rosette. Encouragingly, some of the attendees used these sessions as a platform to independently find and report notable fungi, leading to some valuable records being added to the Fungus Recording Database of Britain and Ireland (FRDBI).

Nationally rare Scaly Spark fungus found during a VESPA survey on 12 Oct 2025 (photo: Russell Wynn) 

In addition to the scheduled activities, several experienced local ecologists undertook independent surveys as VESPA registrants. A WhatsApp group was established to support the activities of nocturnal moth surveyors, which raised awareness of the colonisation of ‘Little Arboreal Ladybird’ Calvia decemguttata, including several useful records of it coming to moth traps (see here).

Little Arboreal Ladybirds on 21 June 2025 (photo: Russell Wynn)

2026 preview

For 2026, we aim to increase the number of registered VESPA participants and provide additional training support and guidance as part of a wider programme of scheduled activities. There are about 35 field-based survey and training sessions currently scheduled between March and November, focussing on different species groups according to season.

Based on feedback from the VESPA community, we have developed a series of priority topics where registrants will be provided with training and opportunities to conduct independent surveys. In most cases, these priority topics will generate species data that will inform forest management and hopefully improve the conservation of priority habitats and species. The list of priority topics for 2026 is below:

• Dragonflies and damselflies in New Forest ponds

  
  

• Invertebrates and fungi of Beech deadwood habitats

  
  

• Plants and fungi of acid grasslands

  
  

• Lichens of heathland and ancient woodland habitats

  
  

• Acoustic monitoring of New Forest bats

  
  

• Nocturnal moth surveys

  
  

• New Forest Raptor Monitoring Programme

We will be expanding our network of VESPA WhatsApp groups to facilitate peer-to-peer communications, and will develop our species recording guidelines here to facilitate data flow to Hampshire Biodiversity Information Centre and national databases such as NBN Atlas.

We have agreed with Forestry England that registered participants engaged in scheduled VESPA training and survey sessions will be exempt from the forthcoming car parking charges. However, VESPA participants engaging in independent surveys will be required to pay when using Forestry England car parks, either on an ad hoc basis or through securing an annual Forestry England membership; further details here.

Finally, we would like to thank all VESPA trainers and participants for contributing to a successful and rewarding pilot year in 2025. Further details of upcoming VESPA activities will be provided to all registrants soon, and we’re looking forward to getting out surveying in the forest again this spring!