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Meet the Conservation Groups with a Vision for Moor Trees

I happen to live on the doorstep of one of Britain’s most southerly national parks. Dartmoor National Park is moorland resting on Britain’s largest granite outcrop and stretching across 954 km2 (368 sq mi). Once heavily forested it is now predominantly treeless, aside from some isolated ancient woodland and coniferous forestry, and carpeted in thick blanket bog.

There is no doubt that Dartmoor is a human-made, human-managed landscape. The ecological condition of the moor is a product of heavy grazing, much to the success of wheatear, skylark, and meadow pipit, and is a regionally important site for whinchat and an internationally important site for stonechat.

Yet there are some individuals and agencies on Dartmoor that would like to see an increase in the diversity of the moorland landscape. Their solution is to protect remnant upland ancient oak such as Wistman’s Wood and Blackator Copse, encourage native woodland species within ex-forestry plantations, practising traditional management such as coppicing on wet woodland and planting new swathes of native woodland.

One of the Dartmoor charities I have spent a lot of time with is the South West Lakes Trust at Burrator Reservoir. Built in the 19th Century to supply water to Plymouth, the reservoir’s primary purpose is no less important today than it was a hundred years ago. Yet the management of the surrounding area, once intensive coniferous plantation planted to ‘purify’ the reservoir and provide timber, has been taken over by the charity with the aim of promoting recreation and protecting important habitats.

Today the reservoir is lined with mixed broadleaf and wet woodland, important for redstarts, pied flycatchers and wood pipits with goldcrests, firecrests and crossbills at home in the coniferous plantations.

The Burrator habitat that really stands out for me is the wet woodland. Willow and alder surround the waterlogged banks of the reservoir and my work at Burrator is comprised mainly of helping Emily Cannon (Heritage Learning Officer) and her volunteer team to shape an exceptionally boggy and wild area in the northeast of the reservoir. Much to the bemusement of a perplexed corporate work party, this involved the removal of branches and heavy coppicing of overgrown trees to allow for more light to reach the woodland floor, to encourage new growth and the drainage of an increasingly waterlogged ancient farm track that ‘can’ be followed around the reservoir to an abandoned farm ruin. Hard work, but it makes all the difference, and I hope next year I will return to carpets of marsh marigold, golden-leaved saxifrage and marsh violets with the calls of redpoll, siskin, and willow tit.

The South West Lakes Trust is responsible for 40 sites across Devon, Cornwall and Somerset, and are responsible for large areas of woodland surrounding Dartmoor’s upland reservoir. They may not be natural, ancient habitats but they provide a haven for my favourite birds and are popular dog walking spots for visitors.

Despite the sheer size of these wooded reservoir areas, the moor remains for the most part treeless. Graham Burton from Moor Trees believes that more should be done to reforest areas of the moorland. Moor Trees have been planting saplings (cultivated from locally collected seeds in their community nurseries) on Dartmoor since 2001, and they have planted over 66 hectares of native forest with the aim of creating community woodlands and nurturing a naturally regenerated wooded landscape. The long-term goal is to create a ‘Wild Heart of Dartmoor’ comprised of 10,000 hectares of native woodland (10% of the National Park) mixed with semi-natural grazing. But this isn’t a rewilding project, not yet, and is more about allowing species such as woodland birds confined to fragments to flourish in restored areas, than large carnivores unsuitable for modern day touristic and lifestyle driven Dartmoor. So far all of the trees have been planted on the fringe of the open moor and along the Avon valley with the support of over 40 landowners.

When I was a fresh-faced graduate straight out of university I travelled to Howton Down, on the southeast of the moor, and was asked to construct a deer fence to protect 12,000 native saplings. It was a humbling experience to see this forest of saplings against the rugged moorland background, whilst talking about how this ‘forest’ will one day be a habit for horseshoe bats and woodpeckers.

Moor Trees believe that with fewer economic incentives for upland grazing more landowners and commoners will begin practicing lower impact farming, and areas other the moor will be left for the creation of more woodland areas and natural regeneration.

For me the idea of a more diverse wooded landscape on Dartmoor, surrounded by granite tors, blanket bogs and Rhôs pasture, where low impact grazing is practiced by native Dartmoor ponies and small herds of sheep, is a romantic one. But without a more thorough understanding of the complexities of the Dartmoor landscape and the impact this would have on the variety of threatened open moorland species, I find myself unable to advocate a wide-scale commitment to Moor Tree’s Wild Heart of Dartmoor.

Samanta Norbury-Webster is a naturalist and photographer who researches fascinating stories for your television. She lives on Dartmoor and is passionate about documenting the natural world. You can follow her on Twitter at @SamantaWildlife, on Facebook at Facebook.com/SamantaWildlife or via her blog at samantawildlife.wordpress.com.