Back to the Future! Help us restore a Stone Age landscape

7 Nov 2007

Gwent Wildlife Trust is taking the controversial step of buying 104 acres of wildlife-poor commercial dairy pasture in Wales – to turn back the clock and recreate a Stone Age wildlife haven that will support wildlife in the 21^st century.

The trust is launching a campaign to raise funds to buy the site on the Trellech Ridge near Monmouth, south-east Wales, to re-create an area once known as Wyeswood Common. More than £500,000 needs to be raised if the venture is to go ahead – and the acquisition price is needed by Christmas. The site for sale is next to the 40 acres of species-rich grassland in GWT’s flagship Pentwyn Farm Nature Reserve - a haven for species such as the dormouse, lesser horseshoe bat and greater butterfly orchid - and also in the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Wildlife Trusts often acquire large areas of land which are already rich in flora and fauna. However, buying fields of commercial ryegrass which, for decades, have been intensively-managed for agricultural efficiency, is an ambitious step. It is also one which will require a considerable effort on the part of GWT in order to transform this blank canvas back into wildflower meadows.

Pentwyn Farm and the adjoining farmland lie within the Wentwood to Wye landscape-scale conservation project, which involves GWT, the Woodland Trust, and other partners. There is more than a hint of time travel about this bold venture as GWT’s vision for 400 km² area is of a species-rich wood-pasture landscape, dating back to the "open forest" wildwood of Neolithic Britain and awash with green-winged orchids and with restored heathland. This wood-pasture landscape hung on widely across the Trellech Ridge over the intervening millennia, finally being lost to agricultural enclosure or commercial conifer planting in the last 250 years.

The purchase would enable Gwent Wildlife Trust to connect the wildflower meadows of Pentwyn Farm to the nearby Wye Valley woodland - currently they are separated by 104 acres of commercial ryegrass - allowing species the space to move and thrive. Wildlife Trusts across the UK are taking this approach and working on a landscape-scale to improve resilience and connectivity of habitats and adaptation to climate change.

Chief executive of GWT, Julian Branscombe, said:

"Sixteen years ago, nature conservation was all about saving the last few tiny remnants of habitat, such as Pentwyn Farm. Now, in 2007, in the face of a changing climate, the long-term future of our wildlife can only be secured by making sure habitat fragmentation is reversed. Extensive networks of habitat across the wider landscape offer our native wildlife the chance to survive in our rapidly changing environment. To secure this vision, The Wildlife Trusts are going on the offensive, seeking ambitious purchases of land for habitat creation to dramatically extend nature reserves, and working with partners to ensure these reserves are linked by a support network of habitats where wildlife can flourish."

John Everitt, The Wildlife Trusts’ head of rebuilding biodiversity added:

"This is a great example of our Living Landscape vision. Gwent Wildlife Trusts’ plans for Wyeswood Common campaign are ambitious with huge benefits for wildlife. We have the ability to create the type of landscape we want for the future with biodiversity, local business and society all ending up as winners".

To find out more about Gwent Wildlife Trust’s Wyeswood Common campaign or to donate funds please visit www.gwentwildlife.org

Images:

Aerial photographs, maps of the area and further high-resolution images are available on request.

Wyeswood Common Appeal - key points

· GWT is raising money to buy 100 acres of intensively farmed agricultural grassland near Monmouth on the Trellech Ridge in the Wye Valley AONB. This has been a well-managed intensive dairy farm but there is currently very little wildlife interest on the site and it represents a "blank canvas" for nature conservation.

· This acquisition promises to highlight the potential of GWT’s Wentwood to Wye landscape-scale vision of a wildlife-rich countryside. Through working with other private landowners and conservation bodies, GWT is seeking to foster habitat management and creation across a 400 square kilometre swathe of countryside in the south-eastern corner of Wales.

· The re-creation of Wyeswood Common provides a flagship site demonstrating how the Wentwood to Wye landscape-scale vision can be achieved. This is a superb example of The Wildlife Trusts’ new large-scale approach to nature conservation. This was launched in the historic A Living Landscape policy document in November 2006, showing how The Wildlife Trusts want to "stitch the countryside back together".

· The site GWT wants to buy lies next to its Pentwyn Farm nature reserve, which comprises 40 acres of farmland, unchanged since medieval times. Pentwyn Farm is already rich in UK Biodiversity Action Plan priority species such as the lesser horseshoe bat and dormouse. Other species of note are the greater butterfly orchid, green-winged orchid and Autumnal oil-beetle.

· Pentwyn Farm is a flagship nature reserve for GWT, opened to the public in 1991. http://www.gwentwildlife.org/reserves/Pentwyn.htm

· Included in the 40 acres at Pentwyn is 20 acres of land with the intact medieval field pattern, but where 40 years of agricultural intensification had wiped out many of the wild flowers. A return to traditional management in the last 10 years has already allowed most of the original flora to flourish by "jumping the hedge" from the untouched parts of Pentwyn Farm, reverting this "improved land" to a species-rich wildlife habitat. GWT intends to repeat this habitat restoration on an even more dramatic scale over this further 104 acres.

· GWT has a vision of the restored landscape being managed by natural processes, driven by livestock ranging freely across the site. The varied species-rich habitat mosaic produced will echo the prehistoric wilderness which combined woodland and grassland up until forest clearance some 3,000 years ago. GWT’s vision is for a return to a wood-pasture landscape, dating back to the "open forest" wildwood of Neolithic Britain.

· This purchase would enable Pentwyn Farm to become connected to the Wye Valley woodlands nearby, establishing a vital connection for a number of species. The area has internationally-important populations of dormice and lesser horseshoe bats which would benefit greatly, as would a range of other grassland and woodland wildlife.

· The resulting nature reserve will be the largest managed by GWT, showing what is possible when nature conservation is given a blank canvas.

Some historical points:

The adjacent Pentwyn Farm was purchased by GWT in 1991. The Trust raised £153,000 in six weeks with the help of a national media campaign, spearheaded by The Daily Telegraph. Regular updates led to a flood of donations which enabled the Trust to buy the land. Sir David Attenborough also lent his support. Sixteen years later the flower-rich meadows of Pentwyn Farm are testimony to the success of this campaign. GWT is now hoping to repeat this.

For further information please contact:

Julian Branscombe, chief executive, Gwent Wildlife Trust : 01600 740600

email: jbranscombe@gwentwildlife.org

Editors' notes:

The Wildlife Trusts (TWT) www.wildlifetrusts.org/ href="http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/" target=_blank>www.wildlifetrusts.org

There are 47 local Wildlife Trusts across the whole of the UK, the Isle of Man and Alderney. We are working for an environment rich in wildlife for everyone. With 720,000 members, we are the largest UK voluntary organisation dedicated to conserving the full range of the UK’s habitats and species, whether they be in the countryside, in cities or at sea. 134,000 of our members belong to our junior branch, Wildlife Watch. We manage 2,200 nature reserves covering more than 80,000 hectares; we stand up for wildlife; we inspire people about the natural world and we foster sustainable living.

Gwent Wildlife Trust www.gwentwildlife.org

Gwent Wildlife Trust is one of six Trusts in Wales and covers the area from the lower Wye to the Rhymney river valley in South East Wales. The Trust was set up in 1963 to purchase its first nature reserve, Magor Marsh and now has over 30 nature reserves. Gwent Wildlife Trust are a registered charity and a member of the Wildlife Trusts Partnership, the largest voluntary organisation concerned with wildlife protection.

A Living Landscape

‘A Living Landscape’ report sets out how The Wildlife Trusts are responding to the challenge of safeguarding our wildlife in the face of climate change, as well as huge changes in agriculture, industry and housing. This report maps the way forward in restoring the UK’s battered ecosystems, for both wildlife and people. It identifies a number of projects which Wildlife Trusts around the country are engaged in. For a downloadable copy of the report please visit www.wildlifetrusts.org