Hundreds of acres of wood pasture habitat are being created in a scheme to boost native songbirds and other wildlife alongside farming.
The National Trust is supporting some of its tenant farmers across Purbeck in Dorset to use funding from the Government’s nature-friendly farming programme to establish 380 hectares (940 acres) of wildlife-rich habitat.
The farmers are planting 60,000 trees and shrubs over the next six years to create wood pasture that provides important nesting, roosting and foraging sites for birds such as yellowhammer, linnet and goldfinches, as well as rare turtle doves and nightingales.
Wood pasture – a mosaic of grassland, scrub, hedges and trees – also provides sheltered grazing land for livestock, enabling the farmers to help wildlife at the same time as producing food.
The National Trust said the “soundscape” of Purbeck had quietened over the past 70 years, with very small numbers of nightingales, and turtle doves absent for decades, and the project aimed to bring back a “cacophony of birdsong” to the area.
Farmers involved in the project also said it meant they were able to restore nature at the same time as running viable businesses.
The scheme is paid for through the taxpayer-funded environmental land management schemes, which have replaced the old EU farm subsidies and pay farmers for “public goods” ranging from healthy soil, rivers and hedgerows, to habitat creation and large-scale nature restoration work.
Ben Cooke, area ranger for the National Trust at Purbeck, said: “We haven’t yet lost Purbeck’s soundscape but over the last 70 years its volume has quietened, with some birds – and their respective birdsong – disappearing altogether.
“By restoring wood pasture, we want to reverse this trend and bring back a cacophony of birdsong and the hum of insects across Purbeck.
“Imagine how fantastic it would be if the calls of currently absent species such as the turtle dove can be attracted to return, to became part of our lives again.”
Paul Loudoun, a National Trust tenant farmer, who farms the 200-hectare Wilkswood Farm, in Langton Matravers, Purbeck, said: “I came into farming around 40 years ago because I had a real interest in the outdoors and nature.
“But my focus for many years was more on the intensive grazing of sheep and cattle.
“The new government payments have enabled me to take on a range of nature restoration projects while still running a viable business.”
He said the payments had also helped him set up a sustainable way of managing an organic beef herd, which are completely pasture-fed, live outdoors all year and calve in the fields, making it much more economical than having to buy feeds and fertilisers.
“This way, I can supply the local economy with meat while creating a place where nature can thrive,” he added.
Jake Hancock, a National Trust tenant farmer on a 130ha farm at Middlebere on the Purbeck Heaths, said: “Farming with nature in mind like this means we can expect to see more wildlife return over time, which is very exciting.
“As the project progresses, we will also be able to take school children and other interest groups to see the farm regularly to teach them about food production and wildlife and inspire them about the work we are doing.”
He said it was critical – despite tight budgets – that the Government support continued.
Some of the seeds to grow the trees and shrubs were collected by community and school groups, and the National Trust and tenant farmers have “rotavated” – ploughed up – small patches of land to create bare earth where new vegetation can take hold.
They are also using protective layers of gorse, bramble and hawthorn, dead branches and deer proof-fencing to protect saplings from grazing animals, so the trees and shrubs can be successfully established and grow.
