Listening to the call of the wild

Reintroduction of several species of herbivores will return large areas to wood pastures

A further 1,000 acres are managed in a similar way around the Fritton Lake on the Somerleyton Estate in Suffolk.

Here there is heathland with sporadic trees, wet woodland, alder carr, acid grassland and marshes with areas covered by ornamental and commercial trees. Some of the trees have been removed, along with Victorian rhododendrons, to create wood pasture grazed by red and fallow deer, pigs, cattle, ponies and sheep. At some point, the Eurasian lynx might be reintroduced, the emblem of Wild East. The word rewilding means many things to many people.

To some it means leaving land untouched to let nature take its course, in which case it is likely to turn to nettles, thistles, ragwort and scrub before, eventually becoming woodland.

Without any management the result is likely to elicit criticism, especially if predators such as foxes and corvids reduce the range and population of wildlife species.

On a larger scale, such as Somerleyton and Knepp, large herbivores are introduced to maintain a wood pasture landscape, hugely increasing wildlife. To avoid unintended disasters such as occurred at Oostvaarderplassen, careful management is undertaken to ensure a balance as outcomes are monitored.

Can this be replicated across the country and, if so, would that reduce our ability to feed ourselves?

The estates taking this approach thus far have well developed tourism enterprises which bring more income than conventional farming on poor soils.

The aim of Wild East, however, is that as many people as possible will take part. It is critical, however, that such initiatives are coordinated as we have learnt that small silos of nature conservation do not achieve very much. To use the words of Sir John Lawton in his Making Space for Nature Report, Nature conservation must be “bigger, better and more joined up”.

HEDGEHOG numbers have halved since 2007, according to a recent report that claims that a quarter of Britain’s native mammals are at ‘imminent risk of extinction’.

However, suggestions that this is due to the removal of hedgerows is entirely false, says the Game and Wildlife Conservation

Trust.

The loss of hedgerows was stopped a decade earlier through legal protection and the length is now increasing thanks to Stewardship grants.

The main cause of hedgehog death is badgers, the population of which has doubled since 1980 and yet this is rarely mentioned when the decline is discussed.

AS harvest progresses with most winter barley and oilseed rape cut and the combines now in winter wheat, fears about yields are being realised.

Specific weighs are reasonably good, but many crops died off rather than ripened as show by the early date of harvest.

The crops are very short, mostly below knee height, so there will be little straw, although spring barley is yet to be cut.

One grain trader reported yields down 10-15 per cent for winter barley, 20 per cent for rape and 10-25 per cent for wheat.

DEFRA has announced that greening measures will be scrapped from next year.

The three measures – crop diversity, ecological focus areas and permanent pasture – were introduced in the CAP regime and failure to comply results in 30 per cent of the Basic Payment withheld.

The measures have not been popular in the UK. EFAs were famously described as being neither ecological nor focused.