Creating a Wildlife Corridor

This project really encapsulates what we want to do through Wilbur. So for us it's not about turning whole fields or whole farms into kind of habitat areas, it's about working with the farmers to create those little pockets of habitat on areas of land that otherwise aren't really benefiting the farming system. I'm Alice and I was part of the group that founded Wilbur. Back in 2022, we set up Wilbur with one clear aim. So we wanted to do our bit to help nature and wildlife and start in our local area, but we wanted to do things differently. So as our local area is predominantly agricultural, rather than working against farmers and agriculture, we wanted to work alongside them. So basically the concept is that we do projects on predominantly farmland and projects that create habitat and are going to benefit wildlife. The project we're working on right now is Bracken Gorge and this project is all about creating a wildlife corridor in a kind of valley setting. Today is the start, the first day of the project, so we're starting by fencing off the area, which then means we can move on to the next stages. This project will take a while to happen, so we're looking at about a 12-month period. So start off with the fencing currently during the winter, then during the summer it'll all be about controlling the bracken and starting to reduce that, because at the moment the whole site is kind of covered in it. And then next winter we'll be looking to plant the trees to create this woodland habitat. It's quite a nice project because a lot of farms in this local area will have land, pockets of land, very similar to this. So it's not very usable, it's not beneficial for food production, but it could be beneficial for wildlife. It just needs a few tweaks, so by simply fencing it off, that's just going to stop animals grazing and reduce the bracken so we can increase the biodiversity. And it's just quite a simple project, it's cost-effective, it's not going to impact the farm at all, in fact it will benefit the farm because they won't have sheep and things getting stuck in the ravine. And yeah, hopefully it'll just be a really nice, simple wildlife corridor. By creating the woodland will help shore up the banks of the stream and this will help reduce the erosion that currently happens, it helps stop the surface runoff from the two fields on either side, so it slows the flow going down into the water course as it increases infiltration and things like that. And then yeah, it creates a really nice buffer zone so it helps stop any kind of pollutants running into the water course, it helps with carbon capture and things like that, and then it also has that main benefit from our perspective of giving wildlife somewhere to live and giving them a really good roadway between existing habitats that already exist close by. So the fence is important for the start of the project basically, so our idea will be that once the bracken is removed we'll then be planting trees without the fence and without limiting the stock access, we wouldn't be able to plant the trees there because the livestock would go in and eat the saplings, so it means that it gives us that opportunity to establish the woodland, but in the future there is definitely the opportunity for stock access into the area, so for instance we're putting in two gateways so that if needs be and when the time is right we can have livestock back in there and that's great for them in kind of like the summer months, so for instance once the trees are established it will provide lots of shade and shelter and then if we've got kind of cattle here as well, the trees provide that browsing forage for them as well. First I start, I put a post either end and then I put intermediate posts in where I think they're needed, put the stays on either end then, put the wire on, reverse track the back with a quick fencer and tension it up, staple the netting on and then place the stakes out, drive along the side, bang them in and then put the barb on and staple it all up at the end is my method. Once the fences have gone up we want to see this area become that oasis for wildlife to have a lot more biodiversity in this area, so by planting trees that we will be increasing that biodiversity and then for us it's allowing nature to then take its cause and starting to see what natural regeneration takes place in the future without our inputs and making sure that you know we're really listening to the land and only kind of planting and encouraging the species that would naturally grow here anyway.