New wood pasture to help amplify nature’s chorus in Purbeck
Goldfinch | ©Vidar Nordli-Mathisen
Words by National Trust
IG: @nationaltrust
Covered by Conker Nature Magazine
IG: @conkernaturemagazine
First Published: 05th February 2025 at 10:00 AM GMT
A project is underway to amplify nature’s chorus across Purbeck in Dorset by restoring areas of wood pasture, a prime habitat for Britain’s much-loved, native songbirds.
Goldfinch | ©Vidar Nordli-Mathisen
The National Trust, which cares for around 3,500ha (over 8,600 acres) of land across Purbeck, is supporting its tenant farmers to plant 60,000 trees and shrubs over the next six years, creating 380ha (940 acres) of new wood pasture.
One of the UK’s most biodiverse habitats, wood pasture provides important nesting, roosting and foraging sites for a wide variety of wildlife, including birds such as the yellowhammer, linnet and goldfinch, as well as the extremely rare turtle dove and nightingale, while also serving as sheltered grazing pasture for livestock.
“We haven’t yet lost Purbeck’s soundscape, but over the last 70 years its volume has quietened, with some birds – and their respective birdsong – disappearing altogether. By restoring wood pasture, we want to reverse this trend and bring back a cacophony of birdsong and the hum of insects across Purbeck.
Imagine how fantastic it would be if the calls of currently absent species such as the turtle dove, can be attracted to return, to became part of our lives again.”
Wood pasture creation is one of the habitat restoration projects being funded by the government’s Environmental Land Management schemes (ELMs). The payment schemes focus on supporting farming initiatives that provide a wide range of public benefits, such as soil health, climate change adaptation, increased biodiversity and access for people.
© Doncoombez | Heathland habitat
“This is a really exciting time. I came into farming around 40 years ago because I had a real interest in the outdoors and nature. But my focus for many years was more on the intensive grazing of sheep and cattle. The new government payments have enabled me to take on a range of nature restoration projects, while still running a viable business.
The payments have also helped me to set up a sustainable way of managing an organic beef herd. The cattle are completely pasture fed, live outdoors all year and calve in the fields. It’s a simple, natural system, and much more economical than having to buy feeds and fertilisers. This way, I can supply the local economy with meat, while creating a place where nature can thrive.”
“Farming with nature in mind like this means we can expect to see more wildlife return over time, which is very exciting. As the project progresses, we will also be able to take school children and other interest groups to see the farm regularly to teach them about food production and wildlife and inspire them about the work we are doing.
It’s great that work like this is made possible with the direct support of Government schemes such as Countryside Stewardship. Though we know budgets are tight at this current time, it is critical that this support continues to develop, both nationally and locally.”
The project comes at an important time, as native birds across the UK have been facing increasing challenges over recent years, with woodland bird numbers showing a long-term decline of 27 per cent since the early 1970s, due to the intensification of agriculture, habitat loss and the use of pesticides. Some specialist farmland species, including the turtle dove, are among the UK’s fastest declining birds.
“Working with our tenant farmers will be vital to meeting our new ambitious goal to restore nature everywhere. Managing habitats to benefit both our farming community and nature is what is needed to help tackle the catastrophic decline of UK nature and to return our landscapes to health.
Projects like this one at Purbeck are a fantastic example of what we can achieve when we work together. Wood pasture is not only very important to farming, but has also always held great cultural significance due to the intensive use that people made of the landscape. By restoring these habitats that have been lost, nature and people will both get the chance to thrive –
and we will be able to enjoy birdsong as well as high quality food for years to come.”
© Rebecca Ritchie | Farmer discussing the changes to his land
Wood pasture, typified by landscapes which are today most commonly associated with the New Forest, benefits wildlife because of its mix of habitats, made up of a mosaic of grassland, scrub, hedges and trees. The open ground and grassland encourage an abundance of wildflowers and insects, scrub islands provide shelter and food for birds, insects and small mammals, while trees are especially attractive to bats, birds and lichens.
Ben continued: “Together these interconnected habitats will create a landscape that’s teeming with the sights, sounds and scents of nature. It will be a place where people can immerse themselves in the natural world, and hopefully inspire them to create similar habitats in their own gardens, schools or parks.”
Some of the seeds used to grow trees and shrubs for the project were collected on-site with the help of local community groups and schools. After harvesting the seeds, the Trust and the tenant farmers have rotavated small plots of land to create bare ground where the saplings and shrubs can grow.
Ben continued: “Rotavating the land may look drastic at first, but the new vegetation will soon take hold, whether through species such as bramble, hawthorn and blackthorn which have been planted or regenerated naturally. We are also experimenting with ways to protect saplings from grazing animals, especially deer, which not only eat the new growth but can jump high fences to get to it.”
In some areas, this involves using protective layers of thorny gorse, bramble and hawthorn, or piles of dead branches. In others, deer-proof exclosures have been erected.
Ben added: “We’ll be checking to establish which methods work to protect the newly planted shrubs and saplings, as well as monitoring wildlife species each year to see if numbers are increasing. Hopefully the results will be dramatic – and we’ll hear nature singing out loud again!”