Tree Planting at Eversfield

  

 

Environmental Stewardship

In 2001 and 2002 as part of his plan for the organic farming business, Mark Bury began 2 separate wildlife regeneration projects for the Eversfield Estate, under the DEFRA funded ‘Countryside Stewardship Scheme’.

Recently, this scheme has been renamed by DEFRA and is now run by ‘Natural England’. New schemes are now referred to as ‘Environmental Stewardship’.

What is Environmental Stewardship?
Countryside Stewardship was introduced as a pilot scheme in England in 1991 by the then Countryside Commission. DEFRA set up the Countryside Stewardship Scheme and more recently renamed to the Environmental Stewardship Scheme to work with farmers to conserve and enhance the British countryside. Farmers are able to apply for funding to help with agri-environmental projects. Farmers and land managers enter 10-year agreements to manage land in an environmentally beneficial way in return for annual payments. Grants are also available towards capital works such as hedge laying and planting, and repairing dry-stone walls.

The key objectives on Environmental Stewardship are:

• Conserve wildlife and biodiversity
• Maintain the landscape
• Protect historical and natural resources
• Promote public access and understanding of the countryside

You can find out more about this at the official DEFRA website:

What is Culm Grassland?
“Culm grassland” lies on the soil above the Culm Measures – a unique area whcih is only found in Devon & Cornwall. In the Culm formation’s slates and shales are composed of purple moor grass and rush pasture. It is noted for a wide diversity of species, some extremely rare including the Marsh Fritillary butterfly. Some 92 percent of culm grassland has been lost in the past 100 years, 48 percent being lost between 1984 and 1991 alone. There are a number of organisations looking to halt the decline including Devon Wildlife Trust with its Culm Natural Networks project and Butterfly Conservation.

What have we done at Eversfield?

Eversfield Organic has 2 schemes under the OELS ‘Organic Entry Level Stewardship’ The 2 areas of the Eversfield Estate called ‘Hillside’ & ‘Ellacott’ have undergone a detailed transformation under these schemes which will end in 2011 and 2012. The 850 acres of Eversfield Estate lies close to Dartmoor and has a mixture of habitats including: marsh & Culm Grassland (20%), Lowland Meadow (60%), Woodland (8%), Orchard (2%) Water Meadow (5%) and Riverside (5%).  Much of the land is sloping and south facing with plentiful rain and sunshine offering good conditions for wildlife and grass growth. Amongst the many creatures which share our farm we’ve seen:

• Red Deer & Roe Deer
• Birds of Prey: Buzzards, Falcons, Kestrels
• Rabbits & Hares
• Foxes, Otters & Kingfishers
• Voles, weasels & stoats
• Various Butterflies, Moths, Dragonflies & bees
• Wild flowers, orchids, fungi, marsh plants

Here are the things we’ve been doing in the past 7 years to improve conservation of the landscape and encourage biodiversity:

Trees & Hedgerow Restoration

• Planted approx. 30,000 new trees creating copse areas of broad leaf woodland and a haven for wildlife, flora and fauna.
• Replanted miles of hedgerows using native tree saplings: Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Hazel, Crab apple, Field Maple, Dog Rose, Buckthorn, holly, Oak, Cherry
• Protected parkland trees and mature field trees from livestock damage
• Managed fallen branches to attract deadwood invertebrates and fungi

Devon Banks

• Recreated miles of traditional earthbanks to section grazing meadows, planted with saplings and wild flowers.

Lowland Meadow & Culm Grassland

• Manage livestock grazing to maintain mixed sward & height
• Planted 6m margins with mixed grass seed native to the local habitat
• Cut back clumps of marsh rush to avoid over growth in Culm areas
• Hay is after July to permit flowers and grasses to seed
• Leave strips of tussocky grass uncut to act as a refuge for wildlife
• Rolling and harrowing fields takes place between September and February to avoid disturbing breeding birds
• Spear & Creeping thistles (weeds) are cut to prevent seeding and spread

Orchard Recreation

• Planting traditional fruit tree varieties, pruning every 1-5 years.
• Protecting young trees from bark stripping

Fencing & Access

• Installed miles of livestock fencing, field gates, hedge laying, coppicing, gapping up (filling hedge gaps with new planting).