Looking after wildlife at The Devil's Spittleful

Thursday 19 February 2026

Heathland Heroes

We are creating the county's largest block of heathland and connecting 600 acres of habitat. Join our Saving Worcestershire's Heathland's project team as they bring you the latest news and information from this amazing project

Photo by Andy Harris

New fencing and improved access at The Devil’s Spittleful are helping safeguard wildlife and livestock whilst improving visitor experience for years to come.

A group of soay sheep with brown coats standing in an area of heathland underneath some trees with younger trees all around

Managing nature reserves can seem like the best job in the world. We get to visit these wonderful, wildlife-rich places all the time and enjoy them don’t we? Yes, sometimes we absolutely do! But as well as being privileged to spend time in them, there’s also a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to make them great for wildlife and, where appropriate, for people. Some of the work we undertake is done by our amazing volunteers, who contribute and achieve so much. Some work is just too big a job and we bring in contractors to do it.

Work is nearing completion at The Devil’s Spittleful to replace fencing that was over 20 years old and coming to the end of its life. There are only so many repairs you can make so, rather than replace like-for-like, we used this opportunity to review the size, shape and location of our grazing compartments. Thanks to a grant from Biffa Award, as part of the Government’s Landfill Communities Fund we’ve been able to install new fencing and gates as well as make some improvements for visitors.

Grazing by sheep and cattle is really important for a site like this. They help to keep on top of the more vigorous species, such as broom and birch, that would dominate the site if they could. This would mean that more delicate plant species couldn’t survive and the open nature of the heathland, which is needed by so many species of wildlife from bees to birds, would disappear. The safety of those grazing animals is as important as the safety of the wildlife that makes its home on site.

A photo of a brown and white cow grazing on a snow covered heathland ground. There are trees and another cow in the background.

Over time we’ve noticed an increase in both visitors and visitors with dogs on our heathland nature reserves. Sadly, this has coincided with many more observations of people creating their own paths through the site and dogs off leads. This is bad news for wildlife as many species need peace and quiet to thrive. No matter how friendly a dog is, wildlife perceives it as a threat. This can lead to birds abandoning nests in spring and summer or leaving their feeding grounds in winter, both of which can mean life or death. Aside from people losing their dogs or the stress that dogs off leads can cause other visitors and their on-lead dogs, we’ve also had six sheep killed over the last few months. Dog poo that’s left lying, and the bags that people use and then discard, also cause trouble for wildlife, livestock and our volunteers.

When it came to replacing the fencing, we thought about how we could make a visit more pleasant whilst still managing to protect wildlife and livestock. Where fencing was very close to the main visitor circuit, we moved it back to make walking more appealing. We removed some fencing completely and have enlarged the fencing around other areas, allowing us to graze more of the site with Soay sheep (cattle graze all areas). These large enclosed areas are where people don’t or shouldn’t go. We also took the opportunity to upgrade access points by swapping a stile on a public footpath with a kissing gate, for example.

A photo of a lectern interpretation sign in a heathland area with a hill with trees on in the background

With thanks to the National Lottery Heritage Fund’s grant for our Saving Worcestershire’s Heathlands project, we’re just putting in the last of the new signage. There’s a new waymarked nature trail and eleven signs across the site to help visitors understand more about the heathland, its history, how we manage it and what wildlife to look out for. We hope that all this work will help wildlife on the site to thrive and for visitors to thoroughly enjoy this beautiful place and its special wildlife.