Ashtead & Leatherhead Local

Working Towards a Sustainable Ashtead REWILDING Rewilding seems to be an idea whose time has come. The term basically means letting Nature do its own thing, in a specified area. It’s not always 100% possible to do this, but it’s a good goal to aim for.

In 2015 a new umbrella organisation, Rewilding Britain, was set up and they’ve joined a Rewilding Europe network which has affiliates all over. RB is unashamedly a work in progress. But rewilding should always be work in progress. As the stewardship plan for Wild Ennerdale says: “There is no endpoint...[our plans are] indicative of what could happen, not what will.”

Ennerdale in the Lake District is an outstanding example of what can be done. Twenty years ago the landscape was dominated by “a dark and funereal shroud of foreign trees [spruce]”, to quote renowned guidebook author A. Wainwright. It was a prime site in the Forestry Commission’s long-running campaign to cover England and Scotland as far as possible with spruce plantations, excellent for timber production – a worthy goal – but a complete disaster for biodiversity. Now, the Wild Ennerdale Group (wildennerdale. co.uk) - a partnership of Natural England, the National Trust, the three big landowners there and numerous others - are transforming the valley into a biodiverse wonderland which also produces timber.

Another inspiring example is Carrifran in the Scottish Borders.

Twenty years ago, a group of locals decided to recreate a piece of the wildwood that covered the area 7000 years ago; they raised the money, mostly from the public, bought a 700-ha valley from a local farmer, fenced it in, and set about afforesting it, details are at www.carrifran.org and here are photos from 2004 and 2017.

A big challenge for nature conservation, whether or not it’s called rewilding, is joining up fragmented habitats and reunifying fragmented gene pools. Hence, rewilding works best at a large scale, but that isn’t essential. The RSPB has done great work at Farnham Heath in SW Surrey by eliminating the former spruce monoculture and creating new heathland and mixed forest, the new flora provides food and habitats for a whole range of species including many birds.

More locally Ashtead Common, The Rye Brook Meadows, Teazle Wood Trust and the Lower Mole project have all been ‘rewilding’ our Rye Brook by doing in-channel work to help make a new natural meandering flow channel which is especially important in stretches where the brook has been canalised.

On a smaller scale, road verges can team with plant and insect life if left uncut see plantlife.org.uk for details about this. So whatever the size, Scottish forests, road verges or your own garden we can all do a bit of re-wilding!

Tony Cooper website: www.transitionashtead.org.uk email: info@transitionashtead.org.uk