Did you know that we have lost some 97% of our flower-rich meadows and there are now half the number of farmland birds that there were 50 years ago. The continued deterioration of the natural environment has clear economic implications for the High Weald as it directly underpins many things that we take for granted such as pollination, flood protection and clean air, as well as, the amenity that the area brings.
Wealden will be a much poorer place in the future if widespread decline of many of our most important, and loved, habitats and species continues.
All the evidence points to the fact that the quality and extent of our natural environment across the Region will continue to decline unless current policies and land management practices are changed. Failure to respond will have enormously damaging implications for our wildlife, our landscapes, our health and our quality of life.
The importance of Habitats and Farming at Coopers Farm
Unimproved Grassland
Unimproved grasslands on neutral and acid soils are ancient habitats that have evolved through traditional land management by our ancestors over tens, hundreds or even thousands of years. Unimproved neutral grasslands in particular are extremely rich wildlife habitats with over a hundred plant species present in the sward of a single field. This is a product of inherently low soil fertility combined with a long history of grazing (pastures) and/or hay making (meadows) which prevents the domination of a few vigorous species or succession back to scrub and woodland. Additionally, grazing creates variations in habitat composition and structure, which increase the wildlife value particularly for insects and other invertebrates. Many species of bumble bees, moths and butterflies, grasshoppers, flies, wasps and beetles etc. are associated with or depend on, a continuum of grassland flowering plants for at least a part of their life-cycle. A number of nationally rare or scarce plant and animal species occur in unimproved grasslands in Sussex such as the green-winged orchid, meadow thistle and corky-fruited water dropwort. The considerable invertebrate fauna and also small mammals, in turn provide a foraging habitat for their predators. Barn owls, nightjars, woodpeckers, badgers, stoats, weasels and bats regularly visit from neighbouring habitats.
Traditional Grazing Regimes
Low intensity grazing creates a varied vegetation structure of short sward, areas of taller herbage and grass tussocks, and small patches of bare soil which offer a range of plant and invertebrate micro-habitats. A long history of traditional grazing can also result in considerable variation in ground conditions. Large ant-hills often develop and provide localised drier soil conditions, whilst at the other extreme are wet flushes, springs and marshy areas. Each supports a different and additional range of plant and animal species. For example ant-hills are an important food resource for green woodpecker, and wet flushes can be of special importance as feeding areas for wading birds such as snipe and woodcock. Birds such as skylarks and lapwings favour the open conditions of a varied pasture for nesting and/or feeding. Pasture provides excellent habitat for invertebrates, especially the insect groups mentioned above, because unlike hay meadows there is a continuity of vegetation structure throughout the year.
Hay Meadows
Traditional hay meadows are especially important for an additional range of annual plant species such as yellow rattle, eyebright and fairy flax, which cannot survive spring grazing or trampling because of their need to flower and set seed on an annual or near-annual cycle. The tall spring growth of hay meadows can also provide cover in spring for the ground nesting skylark, and the ungrazed flowers and foliage provide an important food resource for a wide range of insect species. Many of these insects visit from adjoining habitats, and indeed a number of scarcer woodland species (such as long-horn beetles) actually depend on the close proximity of flower-rich grasslands as an early summer food resource. Once the hay has been cut the traditional grazing of the aftermath (grass growth in autumn helps to keep coarse competitive grasses such as Yorkshire fog suppressed, and provides the short sward conditions required by annuals germinating from seed each year.
This is one of the core aims of Coopers Farm that farming and biodiversity can work in harmony.
