Wildlife Use

We have approached the wildlife use of the farm in several ways:

Firstly the older woodlands have been managed to re-establish coppicing and replanted with native trees therefore increasing the variety and bio diversity of the habitats.  At present we have three different areas on the farm in which this has taken place.  There has been an increase in the numbers of species who use this new habitat.  In time with the proper management of these areas it will also bring an income to the farm by coppicing the woods every five years.

Secondly in some places planting up of old arable fields with trees under the Farm Woodland Premium Scheme have now successfully started to link the more established woods together and give corridor cover to wildlife.  This is most noticeable where we have linked two existing copses together and with extra planting have increased the wooded area on a less productive part of the farm.  This area is now listed as a Local Wildlife Zone.

Thirdly we are trying to reconstruct a “GOIL” system, which is a wooded stream with steep sides.  This was removed under a Government scheme back in the 1940’s & 1950’s to increase the areas under cultivation and now only one small section survives.  We have now commenced the re-fencing of the whole length to stop the sheep grazing and allow the native wetland flowers to re-colonise the area.  Already we have seen the return of Water Voles to this area and with extra tree planting hopefully more wildlife.

Fourthly we are one of a few sites in the South West that have fields in the Habitat scheme and the only one in the UK a long way above sea level.  The 4.79 hectares of land are old arable fields, which have been allowed to regenerate.  We now have a wide diversity of grasses, wild flowers and lichens.

Fifthly we have also started to divide larger grass fields into smaller ones with the construction of Devon Bank Hedges.

Sixthly we are starting to re plant the historic orchards that the farm had.

Seventhly we manage our grasslands in an old fashion way to increase the flowers and insects but not to reduce the productivity of the grasses for our stock.  This does take a great deal of management to get the right balance.