nA multi-million pound scheme has helped restore habitats and support commoning in the New Forest.

The Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) scheme, managed by the Verderers of the New Forest, has been running since 2010 and brings £2 million a year into the Forest.

The scheme is in partnership with Forestry England and the New Forest National Park Authority, with support from the Commoners' Defence Association (CDA) and Natural England.

Since its inception, the scheme has worked to restore miles of wildlife habitats and identify and protect historic sites across an area the size of 17,000 football pitches.

It has also inspired around 20,000 school children to cherish and protect the unique environment.

Recent projects have included funding reflective collars for livestock and restoring wetland areas to increase their biodiversity and adapt to climate change.

Around 3,000 reflective collars were fitted to ponies, donkeys, and cattle during the past year to increase their visibility to drivers and reduce the number of livestock involved in road accidents.

Wetland restoration projects included specialist species and habitat surveys on various sites, while monitoring was carried out using techniques such as water level loggers and time-lapse cameras.

Six surveys of rare species were completed to monitor their presence and activity in the Forest.

Meanwhile, Forestry England volunteers carried out riverfly surveys which help monitor the health of New Forest streams and overall water quality.

Funding from the HLS scheme enabled nearly 550 pupils from 11 schools to visit and learn about the special qualities of the New Forest.

Feedback from the schools was extremely positive, with Broad Chalke Primary School in Salisbury saying their children can now talk about habitats and creatures with more confidence.

A celebration evening, which took place at the Verderers' Court in Lyndhurst on Friday, January 31, saw official verderer Edward Heron make a speech to highlight some of the scheme's achievements and thank the volunteers who took part in projects and survey work.

He said: "The HLS has delivered a wide range of long-lasting benefits for the Forest in the last year.

"There are so many."