Wildlife charity celebrates farmers’ conservation efforts

Six UK farmers shortlisted in competition

to save England’s ancient hedgerows and woodlands

The wildlife charity People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) is pleased to announce six finalists in its competition celebrating the conservation efforts made by the farming and landowner community to protect and restore our hedgerows and woodlands for posterity. These iconic features of the British landscape support a huge variety of native wildlife, such as the threatened hazel dormouse and other vulnerable species, yet the decline of these vital habitats is widespread. The aim of ’Reconnecting the Countryside’ has been to encourage farmers and landowners to create the largest continuous area of dormouse-friendly habitat to ensure a future for this iconic species and our other hedgerow and woodland creatures.

The finalists are:

• Keith Allen from Pen-y-Lan, Trellech, Monmouthshire;

• Andrew Brown from Fairchilds Lodge, Caldecott, Market Harborough, Leicestershire;

• Anne and Bob Cowlin from Mill Farm, Assington,Suffolk;

• Fiona Gerardin from Bere Marsh Farm, Shillingstone, Blandford, Dorset;

• Anthony Martin from Swanton Lodge, Lydden, Dover, Kent;

• Alan Morgan from Gadr Farm, Llangovan, Monmouthshire.

These shortlisted farmers and landowners demonstrated in their competition entries how they have linked wooded areas to create the largest possible continuous cover of dormouse-friendly habitat by planting, coppicing and/or filling in gaps in existing hedges. Both new and established woodland and hedgerows were counted, providing that in the long-term the newer habitat will become suitable to support dormouse populations. Entrants were also encouraged to join forces with neighbouring landowners in order to maximise habitat connectivity.

Nida Al-Fulaij, Development Manager for PTES says: "We are eagerly anticipating the final round of judging as we will be visiting each shortlisted landowner to see their conservation efforts in action. All of the shortlisted entries have been of a very high standard, and I think it will be a very tough call to decide on a winner. The final results of the competition winners will be announced in September".

In the period following the Second World War, the decline of Britain’s hedgerows accelerated substantially due to increased use of mechanised agricultural machinery permitting the removal of many boundaries to increase field sizes. In 1946 there was estimated to be half a million miles of hedgerows in England, which had more than halved by the early 1990s (source: Natural England). A number of measures have since been put in place to protect these habitats (e.g. The Hedgerow Regulations 1997) and today a greater threat to the remaining hedgerows than outright removal, is neglect and inconsistent management. Hedgerows containing more than 80% native species are now classed as priority habitats and have their own Habitat Action Plan (HAP) as part of the UK Biodiversity Action Plan.

Many of our native wildlife species are suffering the effects of habitat fragmentation, leading to localised extinction and contributing to an overall decline in populations. For the hazel dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius) in particular, good quality, species-rich hedgerows provide not only a habitat in themselves, but also a source of food and a means of dispersal between other areas of woodland habitat. Unsympathetic management of hedgerows therefore, can have a disproportionate impact on the local dormouse population which may become isolated. So whilst improving hedgerow conservation will certainly have a positive impact on our dormouse population, many other species will also benefit, including other small mammals, bats, birds, butterflies, moths and other invertebrates.