Size: 4.5 hectares

Ownership: ARC

Designation: SSSI, SAC, SPA, Ramsar

Restrictions: Open Access Land, please keep dogs on a lead and keep to main paths. Horse riding and cycling is only permitted on statutory
bridleways. No camping or fires of any kind.

Access: Furzebrook Road,Wareham BH20 5AR

Grid ref: SY 93127 83088

A small hidden reserve where you see nearly all of our reptile and amphibian species.

The Reserve

Green Pool comprises of mixed habitats, mainly deciduous woodland with open
areas of dry heath. The main feature of the reserve is the large steep sided old clay pit which has a well established pond at its base. The reserve would have been created for clay extraction around the same time as it’s nearby neighbour Blue Pool around 1840. Management of the reserve was taken over from the British Herpetological Society in 2008.

What to see

The pond with the surrounding woodland habitat makes this an excellent area for five
out of our six native species of reptile. Smooth and palmate newts share the habitat with the rarer and protected great crested newt, which are found in good numbers on the reserve along with an abundant population of frogs and toads, hawker and chaser dragonflies. The steep sides to the pit and the dry heath plateau above the pond are home to sand lizards and grass snakes, Silver studded blue, small heath and grayling butterflies.