Far Hall: Wildlife Woodland
TOTAL HABITAT
42,500 Sqm
TOTAL COST
£6,584.40
COST PER Sqm
£0.15
About
This project literally epitomises our ethos of only creating habitat on marginal, unproductive areas of land. This steep hill side, covered in broad-leaf woodland, wasn’t providing very much for the stock that graze this field and made herding the sheep even more difficult!
We worked with Jonathan Lewis and his family on this project. Jonathan has always cared deeply about the natural world and is constantly looking for ways to make the farm more nature friendly.
Our Work
By fencing off the woodland, wildflowers, mosses, fungi and herbs will be given a chance to thrive. The ‘under-story’ of the woodland will also be able to regenerate, with shrubs such as holly and young trees. The more variety in the layers and structure of the woodland the richer the biodiversity of this mosaic.
A local fencing contractor, Dan Drew, carried out the work for us, where possible we always try to use local suppliers so that we benefit local people and businesses as well as wildlife. Dan used environmentally friendly, chestnut fencing stakes sourced locally from Preserved Timber Products. To complete the double fencing at the top end of the woodland, Dan had to clear the existing patchy hedge that had become overgrown.
In the future, we will be looking to re-plant this area either as a hedge or a shelter belt. There are other areas that we also have plans for; the grassy areas at the edge of the woodland have the potential to be planted with wildflowers or trees; bird boxes erected on the younger trees would encourage more birds and leaky dams would help slow the flow of the stream.
Looking to the future…
By improving this habitat we hope to increase the variety of species that are found here. Over the years Jonathan and his family have seen Otters, Kingfishers, Woodcock, Deer and Foxes.
We hope by using our trap camera and conducting surveys we will be able to see how much wildlife Far Hall Woodland supports!
