Warwick Academy hopes to restore a woodland area on its campus, according to a recently submitted conservation management plan.

The CMP, submitted to the Department of Planning, proposed restoration work to a crescent of upland woodland habitat while making it accessible for students to “engage in nature-based learning and play”.

The CMP states: “Our goal is to involve Warwick Academy students and their families in a long-term restoration project to significantly improve the biodiversity and ecological qualities of a neglected woodland space on Warwick Academy property.

“In so doing, we will make the site accessible for outdoor learning and nature-based play and fitness so that our youngsters can reconnect with nature and develop healthy respect, understanding and love for our environment.”

The plan stated that the school intended to maintain “maximum shelter and ground cover” throughout the process, only removing trees when new plantings have grown to the point that they can replace them.

“The final woodland will be dominated [in area] by 60 per cent natives with a number of complementary, non-invasive fruiting and ornamental trees and a high diversity of compatible herbs and flowering species in areas designated as sensory of butterfly gardens,” the CMP said.

Maintenance would involve students and families, with the process recorded with the intention of creating a “mini-documentary” to showcase the project and its benefits.

The CMP noted that the site has become colonised by invasive trees and become a “virtually impenetrable tangle of deadwood and fallen branches”.

The plans also include the creation of an outdoor classroom/amphitheatre circle about 36ft in diameter in an existing clearing.

“A small Bobcat will be needed to level the surface and extract the loose boulders and trash that are present from when the site was used as a dumping ground,” the CMP states.

“A circle of palmetto saplings will be planted around this area. This area will be ‘furnished’ with rustic log or bench seating and a portable outdoor chalkboard and small fire pit.”

A series of unpaved walking paths would also be established within the woodland.