On the 21st June 1965, there was an urgent meeting between naturalists including Eric Ashby, the Deputy Surveyor of the Forestry Commission and the Master of the New Forest Hounds to address Badger and sett protection from local hunting activities.

Six years later on the 22nd June 1971 ‘The New Forest Badger Protection Group’ was officially formed, making it the oldest welfare-based monitoring of a local Badger population anywhere in the United Kingdom.

Within 2 years, Badger Group members along with Forestry Commission employees had completed a mapped based survey of Badger setts around the New Forest. This 1973 report stated that 68% of the surveyed setts were active and 60% of those were breeding setts. It was estimated that 120 cubs were born each year.

Eric Ashby is rightly named as the driving force behind Badger protection in the New Forest and a wider appreciation of Badgers and other UK wildlife. His groundbreaking natural history documentaries conveyed compassion and field craft, showing, for the first time in detail, the secret life of our native wild animals.

The success of New Forest Badger protection led to the formation of many similar groups across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. There are now over 50 affiliated Badger groups and over 70,000 Badger social groups in the United Kingdom.

More recently (1993) The New Forest Badger Group were the first to confirm and document the return of Pine Marten to the South of England.