Devon Working wetlands Devon Wildlife Trust cpt Peter Burgess
Culm grasslands are internationally important
Culm grasslands are home to some of the nation’s most threatened wildlife. But more than half of this habitat has been lost since the late 1980s and just 10% of the resource present in 1900 still survives.
Through Working Wetlands, Devon Wildlife Trust is helping landowners carry out targeted habitat management, creation and restoration projects. The result will be better-linked areas of Culm grassland in the wider countryside, resulting in a working landscape that should regain its function as a natural sponge, reducing excess run-off water and soil erosion. This, in turn, will reduce the risk of serious flooding downstream.
Virtual tour by Mike McFarlane
What's happening?
This scheme is focused in three key areas:
• Knowstone and Witheridge
• Hollow Moor
• Torridge and Tamar headwaters
Devon Wildlife Trust is helping landowners carry out targeted habitat management, creation and restoration projects.
The creation of a land-use map of the Culm will help to target conservation effort
Financial support through a small grants initiative is helping to enhance management of priority habitats
Training events are provided, covering a wide range of subjects from hedge-laying to grazing management
Start: date: 2008
Scheme area: 65,000 hectares
Trust reserves within the scheme
Torridge Headwaters: Volehouse Moor, Mambury Moor, Stowford Moor, Veilstone Moor,
Dunsdon, Vealand Farm. Hollow Moor: Halwill Junction, Sourton Quarry.
Knowstone to Witheridge: Rackenford & Knowstone
This scheme is helping species including...
Marsh fritillary, narrow bordered bee hawk moth, snipe, curlew, willow tit, nightjar
Current threats to the landscape
Habitat fragmentation, agricultural intensification, development, diffuse pollution, non-native species, changes in land use leading to abandonment and inappropriate management.
This scheme is also...
Helping wildlife adapt to climate change, reducing flood risk, improving water quality, storing carbon, reducing soil erosion, providing habitat for pollinating insects, providing volunteering opportunities and skills training, producing local food.
Partners
Natural England, Forestry Commission, Environment Agency, local authorities, Butterfly Conservation, South West Water, local landowners, Devon AONB
To find out more
Email: contactus@devonwildlifetrust.org | Tel: 01392 279244 | Working Wetlands on the Culm
Or view the 10 minute project video
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 Adam Cormack.JPG)
