People tend to think of the South Downs as being solely about the fantastic chalk ridge that runs its length – all 100 miles of it! And whilst this ridge, and its iconic chalk grassland, is a landscape worth protecting... the South Downs is made up of so much more than that.
This is the message that we were trying to get across with our landscape mosaic at Pulborough Brooks’ BWSO event. In looking at the South Downs from a different kind of perspective, you really get an idea of what a diverse landscape it is! Wetlands break through the solid chalk ridge, forming all sorts of specialised fen, woodland and intertidal habitats... Farmland weaves in and out of chalk grassland and makes up so much of what we expect to see in the South Downs landscape, along with its specialised farmland wildlife... Woodland patches spring up throughout, and combine with Ancient Woodland to provide some of the most wooded areas in South East England... Lowland heath, a habitat that is rarer than rainforest, offers a home to rare wildlife species that can’t survive anywhere else...
Whilst this creative challenge over-simplified ‘the lay of the land’ in one sense, you begin to get a picture of the diversity found here. The families that came to visit us on the Big Wild Sleep Out weekend – such as the family pictured here – definitely enjoyed being able to add their pieces to the map-collage... and hopefully went away with a greater understanding of this amazingly diverse landscape!