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Beautiful Demoiselle and Willow Emerald damselflies have been recorded for the first time at Astonbury Wood near Stevenage after a three-year habitat-restoration project across seven Hertfordshire nature reserves. The work increased open, flower-rich woodland habitat, while managers say restoring the site’s drying ponds is the next priority.
Which damselflies were found?
The newly recorded species are the Beautiful Demoiselle and Willow Emerald. Both were observed at Astonbury Wood near Stevenage after the Ancient Astonbury and Wilder Woodlands project. The records show that the restored habitat is being used by additional wildlife, but they are observations following the management work rather than proof that the project alone caused a population recovery.
Damselflies depend on suitable water for their aquatic young, while adults also need sheltered vegetation, sunlight and flying insects. That means woodland management and pond condition can both influence whether a site supports them.
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What the Hertfordshire project changed
The three-year project was supported by a £162,698 grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund in 2026. It covered seven sites:
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| Nature reserve | Location |
|---|---|
| Astonbury Wood | Near Stevenage |
| Balls Wood | Near Hertford |
| Fir & Pond Woods | Near Potters Bar |
| Gobions Wood | Near Brookmans Park |
| Old Park Wood | Harefield |
| Long Deans | Hemel Hempstead |
| Hawkins Wood | Between Buntingford and Royston |
Returning an old coppice area to management
At Astonbury Wood, managers returned an area of ancient woodland about the size of a football pitch to coppice management. Hornbeam was coppiced in December 2025. Cutting trees on a cycle allows light to reach the woodland floor and encourages a changing mosaic of young growth, mature stems and open areas.
Reopening and maintaining glades
Teams cleared trees and dense bramble from woodland glades, then cut and raked those areas annually. More light produced more flowering plants, increasing the supply of nectar and other resources for insects. The same change benefited butterflies: Silver-washed Fritillaries were recorded in much higher numbers during summer 2026 than in previous years.
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Hornbeam showed “strong regrowth following its first growing season, despite the dry summer,” indicating that the coppice stools responded well to the first season after cutting.
Why coppicing can help insects
Long-unmanaged woodland can become darker and structurally uniform as dense shade and bramble suppress ground-layer plants. Coppicing creates temporary sunny conditions and a succession of vegetation stages. Glade cutting and raking prevent scrub from rapidly closing the openings again, helping flowering plants persist.
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Those changes can support butterflies, damselflies and birds, but the response depends on more than light. Adult damselflies need appropriate vegetation, and their larvae require water bodies with suitable depth, oxygen, plant cover and seasonal conditions.
The ponds remain a conservation concern
Iain Ward, wilder woodlands officer at Herts & Middlesex Wildlife Trust, said he hoped for further work to restore Astonbury Wood’s ponds and prevent them drying out completely as summers become increasingly hot and dry. Pond permanence is especially important for damselfly breeding because a site can have excellent terrestrial habitat yet lose larvae if water disappears before development is complete.
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A 2026 British Dragonfly Society project at Castle Fraser likewise focused on creating ponds and protecting habitat for the endangered Northern Damselfly. The separate project illustrates why water levels and pond design are recurring issues in damselfly conservation.
What wider evidence says about water restoration
A peer-reviewed study at France’s Pinail National Nature Reserve examined restoration that re-created stream meanders and reconnected standing water. At the Rivau site, the average number of observed species increased from 5.4 to 9.9 and abundance rose by 770%. At Hutte, abundance increased by 475%. The endangered Southern Damselfly colonised both restored streams.
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Those results support the idea that hydrological restoration can produce substantial odonate responses, but they are not a direct measurement of Astonbury Wood. The Hertfordshire records currently establish presence after habitat management; a stronger assessment would require consistent surveys before and after the work, repeated across several years and sites.
How to judge similar woodland and pond projects
Useful comparisons should look at the whole intervention rather than a single species sighting:
- Habitat type: whether the work restored coppice, glades, streams, ponds or a combination.
- Hydrology: whether water is permanent, seasonal or at risk of drying out.
- Management schedule: what was cut, cleared or raked, and how often maintenance is repeated.
- Monitoring design: whether there is a documented baseline and comparable follow-up surveying.
- Species response: new records, changes in abundance, breeding evidence or wider community diversity.
- Delivery: project duration, funding, land managers and conservation partners.
What the records mean now
The Beautiful Demoiselle and Willow Emerald sightings are an encouraging local biodiversity signal from Astonbury Wood. They coincide with brighter glades, recovering hornbeam coppice and more abundant flowering plants, while the butterfly response provides another indication that the habitat structure changed. Continued surveys and pond restoration will be needed to determine whether the damselflies establish sustained breeding populations and whether the gains persist through hotter, drier summers.
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