Shropshire Farming Talk: Conservation – what do you want?
A walk dedicated to conservation was enjoyed by Shropshire Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust members recently.
Held at Pool Farm, Smethcott in the South Shropshire hills and hosted by Tim and Victoria Main, some 50 guests heard how targeting wildflower meadows still requires management, albeit more extensive, taking one cut a year and keeping grazing to a minimum, perhaps just a few weeks September time.
Any less intervention and brambles, saplings and the like will take hold, smothering the chance of a wildflower meadow.
The GWCT local advisor, Matt Goodall, encouraged members to consider what they wanted out of their farmland.
“I find if you as the owner are inspired any conservation work has a much better chance of working,” he said.
At Pool Farm where there were many and varied hedge qualities and densities a section of mature mixed hawthorn, blackthorn, holly and other native species has been coppiced to ground level.
Matt pointed to holly and other species which were already growing through.
The key points, he highlighted, include, only coppice a length of hedge at a time, so that any wildlife has similar habitat further on down the hedge-line to live in.
Then repeat the process further down the hedge a year or so later.
Secondly while it looks dramatic, coppice to ground level, don’t go halfway, to shoulder or waist height as the hedge will simply die.
Finally, when double fencing a hedge, fence at least two and a half metres wide, better still go three metres.
Birdlife expert Dave Pearce praised the measures taken stating that a dawn chorus walk earlier in the year had yielded Finches, Linnets, Red Starts and Yellow Hammers, the latter particularly appreciating dense hedge habitat.
Amanda Perkins, from the nearby Curlew Country project, also updated the group about her head starting Curlews.
Charlotte Marrison, GWCT Shropshire Chairman
