Living landscapes

Wiltshire has a rich diversity of habitats and traditionally the landscape of the county has been described as the ‘chalk and cheese.’ ‘Chalk’ refers to the higher areas of rolling chalk downland that dominate the southern, eastern and central parts of the county and together make up half of Wiltshire’s land area. ‘Cheese’ refers to the flatter pasture lands of North West Wiltshire and the river valleys of the south with their neutral, clay soils.

The diversity of Wiltshire's habitats is reflected in the wide variety of species found in the county, for example the population of Marsh Fritillary (Eurodryas aurinia) found on Salisbury plain is of national and European importance. Wiltshire is also of particular importance for several species groups, including farmland birds, calcareous and woodland butterflies, bees and bats.

The Trust believes that a living landscape is vital to ensure that Wiltshire’s habitats and wildlife can have a fighting chance of surviving and to enrich the lives of future generations. 

Nature reserves
From the magnificent meadows in the north of the County to the spectacular chalk downlands in the south, our many Nature Reserves, some of national importance, provide a haven for wildlife. Open all year and free to visit; everybody is free to experience the natural world in all its glory at the wild places throughout the county.

Special places for wildlife are still vanishing, so we have shifted our focus from protecting isolated pockets of land to managing large areas for wildlife, which sometimes means restoring neglected or damaged habitats to bring back what has been lost.

New life for chalk grassland
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.

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.

Rebuilding biodiversity in north Wiltshire
The Landscapes for Wildlife Project aims to expand and link together scattered areas of land that is rich in wildlife in the ancient royal hunting Forest of Braydon in North Wiltshire. Covering nearly eight thousand hectares of land, the project is taking a targeted approach to restoring, recreating and linking habitats, so that wildlife will be more able to survive the changes and uncertainties that it could face in the future.

Broadleaved woodland, as well as hay meadows and pastures, are the main focus for the project, but ponds and hedges are also important habitats for wildlife that make up the landscape of this area.