Wilding the Nature Area 1

When we first got together to have a rethink about how to improve the Nature Area, we soon realised that it would be far better for both flora and fauna if we minimised the use of machinery for maintenance. As far as possible, we should use a softer approach aimed at protecting all creatures, great, small, and well hidden. We absolutely see the need to make the site safely accessible for visitors with suitable pathways but without the Nature Area being treated like a garden. Mess and untidiness benefits wildlife of all descriptions. We found that both vertebrates and invertebrates were at risk of accidental destruction when motor mowers were used, especially when the paths were cut too harshly, more frequently than specified, and with strimmed edges to “tidy up”.

The new strategy regarding path maintenance is for minimal interference, fewer mown paths, high cuts, less frequent mowing, and no trimming of path margins. Only where essential and specified is minimal mechanised maintenance permitted.

Similarly, we have been looking at how best to tend the large central area (Zone 3) which has traditionally been seeded for wildflowers. In the past this approximately circular area 38m x 24m in extent, has been cut, rotovated and re-seeded about every 5 years. The emphasis has always been on reinvigorating the assortment of wild flowers because the variety diminishes over time and larger grasses tend to dominate. However, using machinery has the main disadvantage that it can scatter or destroy all the creatures living in the vegetation.

The emphasis has previously been on the provision of pollen, nectar, and seeds for wildlife by planting more wildflowers. However, the insects that are attracted to the wildflowers for food may then successfully breed, produce eggs that are attached to the leaves and stems, then develop into larvae that eat the plants, and subsequently rest or over-winter as a pupal phase. Eggs, caterpillars, and chrysalids can all be concealed in the dying plants and even be buried in the ground around the roots. It would be easy to eradicate the whole of the next year’s generation of butterflies, bees, beetles, grasshoppers and so forth in one swipe if cultivators and mowers are used for management. This is even more likely if the whole area is processed in one go, so that creatures have nowhere they can quickly move to or survive.

In our Nature Area, once a creature is lost, it cannot readily be replaced unless it is a winged insect. Even then, with declining numbers of insects in the UK, it is not a given. The NA is a virtual island of wild with an arable field where chemicals are used on two of its sides, and a road and cultivated orchard on the other two sides. There are not many ways that a population of any particular species of non-flying invertebrate can be re-introduced once it has died out in our protected area.

Small mammals and amphibians also make full use of untended vegetated areas. Many people forget that frogs, toads and newts do not live full time in ponds. They spend most of their time in damp places beneath vegetation or shallow-buried in earth. There are voles, mice, moles, and shrews here nesting and tunnelling just beneath the surface of the ground, and these could also be killed when they cannot move quickly enough to avoid mechanised cutting blades. The effect of machinery on the native fauna, regardless of size or type, is profound – especially so if the whole area is processed at once.

These thoughts led us to consider a more traditional way of cutting back the vegetation in the central wildflower area where we wanted to maintain maximum variety and control the grasses. We would scythe the wildflower zone vegetation and deal with it one third at a time spread over a year.

As a group of volunteer helpers, we had plans to undergo training in how to scythe. As you can imagine, it is not only technique with which you have to be familiar but there are also a lot of health and safety issues to be considered around using such a large sharp implement. The training course was arranged for this past October 2025 but there was a sticking point. There was no point in doing the scything training if we did not also have the tools we needed to put the training into practice. Unfortunately, there was a reluctance by the Parish Council to allow us to buy the tools for various not-illogical reasons having a lot to do with the age profile of the volunteers.

In the end, we asked Chris Riley of Pratensis Countryside Services, who had been scheduled to run the training course, if he would agree to doing the scything for us. We were really pleased that he agreed.

More about how we got on with the task of transforming the wildflower zone in the following post.