Trust buys farmland for nature

20 Feb 2008 Gwent Wildlife Trust is celebrating after raising £525,000 in the space of six months for the most ambitious conservation project it has ever embarked upon.

The trust is taking the unusual step of buying 104 acres of intensively-farmed dairy pasture at Penallt near Monmouth – land which currently has little wildlife value. It plans to transform fields of commercial ryegrass into species-rich grassland and woodland – just like Pentwyn Farm, the trust’s nature reserve which is right next door.

Chief Executive Juliian Branscombe said everyone was thrilled that fundraising efforts had enabled the trust to buy the land, which will be known as Wyeswood Common.

"We are taking a new approach here," he explained. "Traditionally, conservation organisations have always been keen to acquire land already rich in wildlife, and have concentrated their efforts on saving the last few fragments of surviving wildlife habitat. But Gwent Wildlife Trust is looking to turn the clock back, and to re-create habitats which have been lost because of modern farming methods. We are going to put something back for future generations."

Since the Wyeswood Common appeal was launched last year, the trust has been inundated with donations, including an individual one of £20,000. A charity auction earlier this month raised £10,000.

The trust cannot be complacent, however. Although it has bought the land, it now needs money to transform it – around £85,000 – so the Wyeswood Common Appeal remains open.

"There is now a big job to be done in creating habitat on this land to secure a long-term future for wildlife," Julian Branscombe said. "For wildlife to survive in a changing climate, there needs to be a strong network of wildlife habitat stretching from the uplands of Gwent, through the Usk Valley and across to the Wye Valley and the Forest of Dean beyond. Wyeswood Common will be an important part of this network, and even more important in stimulating habitat creation throughout the rest of the area."

The project also attracted interest and support from high-profile conservationists. TV naturalist Bill Oddie said: "Wyeswood Common is about going back to the future: restoring a fragmented environment to its former glory. Gwent Wildlife Trust plans to take monoculture fields and return them to woodland and grassland, full of flowers, insects, bats and birds; all managed by free-ranging livestock which are a kind of lawnmower with attitude."

Wales’ best-known TV wildlife presenter, has been a strong supporter of the project from the start. "I am delighted that the Wildlife Trust is now well on the way to creating this wonderful landscape," he said. "It is really important we all support their lead in securing a future for Welsh wildlife. I am looking forward to seeing this land get richer and richer in wildlife each year from now on."

SUPPORT THE APPEAL! Donations can be sent to: Gwent Wildlife Trust, Seddon House, Dingestow, Monmouth, NP25 4DY

For further information please contact:

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

email: jbranscombe@gwentwildlife.org

Wyeswood Common Appeal - key points

· Wyeswood Common is 104 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 will 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.

· 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.

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