The Wild Places of Sidmouth

No formal selection criteria for the sites to be surveyed was used! No formal level of protection (eg: local nature reserve or SSSI) was required, many are local open spaces in 'public' ownership. In general, any site that looked 'interesting' was included in the project but some regard was paid to a few factors:

• A wide distribution across the area was sought to give a broader perspective of the area's biodiversity

• Each site needed to be identifiable as an ecological 'unit' and have boundaries that defined its scope

• Each site needed to have an obvious ecological benefit; the Ham Field in the town was not included as its benefit is purely recreational and not ecological

• Each site needed to be large enough to support a significant variety of species; the sensory garden in the town was not included as it was not considered large enough to support its own colony of any species, it was seen as a feeding station for visiting creatures

• Each site needed to be publicly accessible so that anyone looking at the information on this website could then visit to see it for themselves; two private sites were included in the project for specific reasons

These are the approximate location of the sites featured' two private sites have been omitted from this map and from the index. Many of the sites are quite large and their exact location cannot be set with a single marker!

Click on any site name for a description of the site and what you might see there.