Spring has arrived on Bucklebury Common

The Bucklebury Estate has completed this season's mechanical work on Bucklebury Common.

Nearly 30ha of heathland has been restored from dense Birch scrub, over 200 veteran trees have been given a new lease of life by clearing younger competitor trees from the canopy, a further 200 young Oak and Beech have been pollarded, and large swathes of wood pasture has been diversified by thinning and creating clearings.

Clearing up the stumps as part of the heathland restoration.

 The two car parks off Broad Lane have been resurfaced and enlarged, trails have been improved notably at Burdens Heath, so that the community no longer has to walk on the public highway.

Rare ground-nesting Woodlarks have already returned, and Snipe have been seen in record numbers on the margins of the newly created scrapes. Special homes for Adders have been installed, new ponds have been dug and existing ponds restored. All this work has been delivered over one of the wettest winters on record, an incredible acheivement which meets the terms of the approved restoration plan.

One of the new scrapes which has already attracted lots of Snipe

 Now is the time to see the fruits of all the labour. Heather will start to germinate on the newly cleared areas, birds like the Nightjar will soon arrive from Africa to nest in the clearings, and dragonflies will seek out the new ponds and scrapes.

After many years with not much happening on the Common, this work was bound to be disruptive, especially given the inclement weather. We are now turning our effort to reinstatement which will be carried out in the coming weeks as ground conditions improve.

This year will see the introduction of a small herd of Belted Galloway cattle to the Common. They will do a great job of grazing on the heath and the newly created clearings to maintain and enhance these important habitats. A fenceless system 'Nofence' will be used to contain them to graze the natural vegetation of the Common. Visitors to the Common will be able to locate the cattle on their phones using GPS technology - a QR code will be displayed at six new individual access and information panels which will be located at strategic points.

Belted Galloway cattle at another heathland site

 Habitat management work will start again in the autumn on a much smaller scale. The estate will continue to look after the veteran trees, create small scattered clearings across the Common to encourage light to the woodland floor encouraging natural regeneration, as well as expanding areas of wood pasture. These will be great for all sorts of wildlife like butterflies and reptiles.

Bucklebury Common will beome more varied and go on to support much more wildlife because of all this activity. It will continue to be a thriving, working environment and a fabulous asset for the community and visitors.

A Small Skipper, one of the many butterflies found at Bucklebury Common

If you are interested in becoming a volunteer on the Common please contact Sam, Bucklebury Common's new Ranger: ranger@buckleburyestate.com

This work has been supported by the Partnerships for Nature programme which is led by North Wessex Downs National Landscape. This is funded by the Species Survival Fund from Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and is administered by The National Lottery Heritage Fund