The site is owned by Hampshire County Council and managed as a nature reserve jointly by the council and Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust.
Beech is the dominant tree at this site although on some of the steeper slopes, Yew dominates; on the deeper soils in the valley bottom the woodland has a more open canopy of Ash and Hazel.
The site's primary interest lies in the fact that it is one of three sites in Britain where Red Helleborine Cephalanthera rubra remains; this orchid grows on a north-west facing slope.
[1] The others being Workman's Wood in Gloucestershire[1][2][3] and Windsor Hill SSSI, a site in the Chilterns in Buckinghamshire.
[1][4] The species was first found at Hawkley Warren in 1986 by K. Turner and Ralph Hollins.