Lowland heathland is one of planet Earth’s rarest and yet most ecologically rich and interesting habitats, hosting dozens of bird, invertebrate, plant and reptile species that cannot thrive elsewhere, while storing carbon and acting as a fire and flood defence.  At Surrey Wildlife Trust we’re on a mission to protect and restore this vital ecosystem, but we can’t do it alone.  

Lowland heathland is home to scarce species such as the Sand Lizard, Smooth Snake, Woodlark, Heath Tiger Beetle, and the elusive Nightjar. We’ve lost 80% of this rare habitat in the UK over the last 200 years as a consequence of human activity, and Surrey supports a substantial 13% of the remainder. Climate change, development, and pollution continue to pose a serious threat—but together, we can halt the damage in its tracks.

By supporting our One Hundred for Heathlands appeal, you can help Surrey’s struggling heathlands thrive long into the future.

More about Surrey's heathlands

By supporting our One Hundred for Heathlands appeal, you’re not only protecting rare habitats but actively helping to reintroduce species, combat climate change, and bring back balance to the landscape. Every donation, big or small, makes a real difference.

£100,000 would enable us to: 

• Reintroduce the fascinating living fossil Marsh Clubmoss on our western reserves, boosting current management efforts at Chobham, Elstead, Pirbright and Brentmoor and a successful recent reintroduction at Wisley Common. 

• Push back on climate change by carrying out wildfire resilience projects across our at-risk heathland sites, including the introduction of unplanted firebreaks, wetland areas and pathways. 

• Reintroduce populations of Sand Lizards to a number of potential sites, to increase the resilience and genetic diversity of the overall population of these jewel-like reptiles. 

• Reverse the decline in our landscapes through bringing back natural ecosystem engineers.  £15,000 will fund a feasibility study for the reintroduction of European Beaver and Red Deer to help manage the landscape and restore a more natural balance of biodiversity at Barossa. 

• Explore the possibility for reintroduction of Black Grouse – a red-listed pheasant-sized former resident that went extinct in around 1900 and is currently only found in the northern regions of England, Scotland and Wales - across our west reserves. 

• Create more wet heathland habitat to benefit one of the UK’s rarest insects, the Window-winged Caddisfly, which has suffered from the drying-out of boggy areas and now exists on only a handful of sites in the UK including Whitmoor Common. Our goal is to restore populations to Chobham Common. 

• Boost the power of our volunteers and keep our heathlands in tip-top shape for nature all year round.   

Thank you for your support! You can donate in the following ways:

We’re aiming to raise £100,000 for Surrey's lowland heathlands, as part of the £1million Save Surrey’s Nature Appeal. It’s an ambitious target (we are asking businesses to support the appeal too) but this vital income boost is needed to achieve more for nature more quickly. 

We need to be bigger, bolder and wilder to restore nature at scale across Surrey. 

We rely on nature for everything – the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink - and it supports our health, happiness and even our economy. Yet for too long nature has been destroyed through unsustainable, inappropriate development and intensive agriculture. This must change. 

Our vision to reach 30% of land rich in wildlife and inspire one in four people to act for nature is bold, but it’s critical we achieve this by 2030.