Hello and welcome again to my blog. What a fantastic start we have had to the project! It's been so lovely getting to know the community around Dropping Well Farm, hearing how much people value our beautiful heathlands and the enthusiasm everyone has to be part of our incredible restoration project.

I've been enjoying spending time with people local to the site, meeting up with many different community groups such as Kidderminster Youth Trust, The Will Mills foundation, St. Peters Church Community Centre and Adventure Youth Outreach Service (AYOS) to name a few. I've also visited several local schools including Bewdley Primary and High schools, Burlish Park Primary, Birchen Coppice Primary School and St. Johns C of E school. I have delivered some school assemblies and we have hosted some wonderful events so far including dusk and dawn chorus walks with Bewdley School and the local community.  

The need for hands-on conservation

A highlight has certainly been welcoming Bewdley School to our nature reserve, as part of their community action days, where they carried out some important practical conservation work on the reserve. Heathland was originally created and maintained by large herbivores, such as woolly mammoths, and by humans who utilised its natural resources for bedding, firewood and grazing pasture.

The agricultural and industrial revolutions meant that farmed heathland was considered of poor quality and economically worthless. The Enclosure Acts, attempts to improve heathlands (ploughing, fertilising with industrial chemicals) and plantation forestry on heathland sites caused the loss of vast areas. Worthless for agriculture land, they provided prime building land. As our population grew, the sandy soils were logical places on which to expand towns; the edges of Stourport and Kidderminster are built on former heaths, for example.

Without management, to replicate those large herbivores and human exploitation of the natural resources, the process of succession would lead to the loss of many heathland plants by colonising trees, particularly birch, Scots pine and oak.

Some of this can be achieved by grazing with cattle and sheep but this isn’t enough to keep the scrub short and the trees at bay. This is why having people like the students from Bewdley School, our amazing Saturday volunteer work parties and our roving volunteer group is vital to preserving this nationally rare habitat. Management keeps it looking beautiful and ensures that the rare species that live there continue to thrive, including many ground-nesting birds such as the wonderful skylark, which has nested across Dropping Well Farm this year.

Volunteering is not only fun but rewarding and as ground-nesting season will soon be over, there is much to do! If you would like to volunteer with us, or know someone or a group that would, then please email volunteer@worcestershirewildlifetrust.org to find out more from my colleague Joe. 

Out and about in August

If you haven’t seen me yet, please pop down and say hi at some of the local events hosted by our wonderful partner AYOS (Adventure Youth Outreach Service). I'll be at Woodbury Park on 12th August, Brinton Park on 17th August and Meredith Green on 25th August. I'll be offering advice to help you to help nature with fun ideas for children and an opportunity to make a bee bag full of wildflower seeds. 

A big thank you to everyone who has volunteered on or off the reserve so far, your help is vital to our success and I hope to see you soon! 

Beccy is working with people close to Dropping Well Farm and would love to hear from you if you'd like to get involved in helping wildlife in the area. Give her a call on 01905 754919 or drop her a line at beccy@worcestershirewildlifetrust.org