One Planet News: Good news for nature with a chalkland nature reserve

RSPB to create new nature reserve to the east of Salisbury

By Annette J Beveridge

RARE and declining chalkland species will have greater protection when the Royal Society of the Protection of Birds (RSPB) manages a new nature reserve.

Following negotiations with Wiltshire Council, Roundbarrow Farm - a former intensive dairy farm, will be transformed into a sheep and cattle-grazed chalk grassland farm and woodland.

Roundbarrow Farm is approximately eight miles from Salisbury and as a chalk grassland, it is an internationally important habitat. Many of these vital habitats (approximately 80%) have already been lost. The county of Wiltshire has approximately 50% of the remaining chalk grasslands and the nature reserve will provide a haven for chalkland species including rare stone curlews.

Other birds to benefit include grey partridges, skylarks, corn buntings, lapwings and yellowhammers.

Read more: Beavers to be released across England

Chalk grassland supports a huge array of plant life such as sheep’s fescue, oat grasses, scabiouses, vetches, bellflowers and orchids. The county’s chalk grasslands also support many nationally rare plant species, such as early gentian, tuberous thistle, dwarf sedge and burnt-tip orchid.

These plant species host butterflies including marsh fritillary, chalkhill blue and silver-spotted skipper.

RSPB manager for the Wiltshire nature reserves, Patrick Cashman, said: “This is a rare opportunity to create a new downland nature reserve from scratch at the former Roundbarrow Farm. We can now begin the process to create flower-rich chalk grassland at scale, which in time will attract and support a cornucopia of chalk-loving blooms, bees, butterflies and birds.

“We will also be able to think about how hedgerows, scrubby edges, woodland and cultivated ground, together with grassland, can interplay for the greatest variety of wildlife. This is an inspirational project Wiltshire Council has embarked upon with the RSPB and presents a fantastic opportunity to put nature back in the countryside.”

RSPB Roundbarrow sits in the internationally protected River Test catchment area. A rare chalk stream is currently at risk from nitrogen run-off including that in cattle manure which damaged its ecosystem. The removal of intensive dairy farming and shifting to a lower number of sheep and beef cattle will naturally reduce nutrients from entering the chalk stream.

Plans include helping to tackle the nature and climate crisis. This will be done through natural regeneration and the planting of woodland to lock in carbon.