Gloucestershire is a highly diverse county, ranging from the Wye Valley with its ancient ravine woodlands in the west, to the streams of the Cotswold plateau in the east. In between there is a wealth of wildlife habitats .... acid grassland, heaths, limestone pavements and oak woodland in the Forest of Dean. The Severn Vale and its floodplain which is so important for birdlife, especially wintering wildfowl and breeding waders; the Cotswold escarpment with acres of unspoilt limestone grassland and beech woodland, and the Cotswold Water Park, of more recent origin but still supporting birds, plants and insects of enormous variety.