New life for chalk
The steep chalk escarpments of Wiltshire define the County but, unbeknown to many, they are also important on a global scale. The UK is a stronghold for chalk grassland and Wiltshire contains 40% of the world total.
The wildflower rich sward and associated birds, mammals and insects that together form the intricate beauty of chalk grassland are under threat, and their numbers are declining. The Trust’s New Life for Chalk Grassland project aims to help halt this process by restoring grassland and reverting marginal arable land back to grassland.
As habitats decline they become fragmented and isolated leaving the species that they support increasingly vulnerable to extinction. If a species population crashes on a site for some reason there may be no suitable habitat nearby from which it can re-build its population again. New Life for Chalk Grassland is taking a landscape scale approach to conservation. It plans to rebuild the habitat mosaic over an area stretching from the North Wessex Downs through Salisbury Plain to Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs to help sustain viable populations.
One aim of the project will be to identify areas between sites that could be reseeded with downland species, thereby starting the whole process of linking isolated areas. As fewer landowners now keep stock, the project will also aim to reinstate grazing where grassland has become overgrown. Project workers will offer free advice to landowners on chalk grassland management and grant-aid schemes.
Funded by Grantscape and Biffaward, the three-year project that started in July 2008 will see a small farming enterprise set up at Coombe Bissett Down Nature Reserve, south of Salisbury. It will supply Dexter cattle and native breed sheep for grazing to keep down brambles, hawthorns, ash seedlings and coarse grasses, which left unattended, would shade out the wildflowers. The animals also provide high quality meat for sale through local suppliers and meat box schemes.
There are a number of ways to become involved with the project. If you would like to volunteer on the reserves or, if you have an area of chalk grassland with which you would like assistance, please contact Project Support Officer Sarah Marshall on 01380 725670 or email her using the form below.
