Did you see the incredible people farming for wildlife on the Grassland’s episode of Wild Isles? Nature-friendly farming can help us bring back lost biodiversity across farmland landscapes. More than 70% of our land in the UK is farmed. Many of today’s farming methods were developed in response to economic constraints, rather than as part of a system that has nature’s best interests at its heart. One of the most noticeable impacts of intensive farming has been on our wildlife, including our farmland birds. Tree sparrows, corn buntings, turtle doves, grey partridges and yellow wagtails have all decreased by more than 70% since the 1970s. Even birds we think of as common, such as starlings, are in serious trouble.
One solution to this problem is nature-friendly farming. This balances the need for sufficient, healthy and sustainable food, with the needs of the natural world that provides it – making space for wildlife wherever food is grown or produced.
We’ve been working closely with farmers across England to help boost bird, butterfly and bee populations through farmland conservation methods and we practice nature-friendly farming on our own reserves too, including at RSPB Northward Hill in Kent.
Our Northward Hill reserve in Kent, located near the River Thames marshes, is a working farm. Here you can find a mosaic of habitats from marshland to hayfields, scrubland, a cherry orchard and deciduous woodland, which lights up with native Bluebells during spring.
Thanks to farming and conservation management working together, Northward Hill is a haven for wildlife. There are breeding Lapwing and Redshank out on the marshland in spring, along with Avocets and their chicks on the reservoir islands. Butterflies float about the fields, while Marsh Harriers and Hobbies soar overhead, and Nightingales and Whitethroats sing from the scrub. In winter, wildfowl flocks gather on the marshes, including Wigeon and Teal.
Although the land was originally drained around the 1940s, when the RSPB took over the site in the 1990s it was a chance to restore lost biodiversity by farming with nature to create a countryside landscape teeming with wildlife. Cattle and sheep, looked after by a tenant farmer, graze the marsh and grassland areas to help maintain a favourable habitat for breeding waders. Livestock grazing stops the grass from growing too tall, creating a varied height in these grassland landscapes, which means there are beneficial feeding and nesting opportunities available for wading bird species, including for Lapwing and Redshank. Keeping water on the reserve, making sure the wet-grassland doesn’t dry out in spring especially, is also vital for waders, as the seasonal water pools in these habitats creates an ideal breeding site for the prey of wading birds. If these pools were to dry up early in the season, young chicks would be at risk of starvation. The team on site have helped with this by installing footdrains, linear ditches around 1m wide and 30cm deep, and scrapes.
Image: Lapwing on grassy bank. © Ben Andrew (rspb-images.com)
Thanks to the restoration of the wetland habitat the breeding wader populations have really grown here. From 1991 to 2022, pairs of Redshank have increased from one to 30 and Lapwing from three to 29. Conservation management techniques carried out here help build resilience in the landscape as the climate changes, aiding in keeping it wetter during drier periods. Along with this the saltmarsh here acts as a carbon store too.
The abundance of wildlife here is testament to the power of nature-friendly farming, and it doesn’t just happen in isolation either. The RSPB work with landowners and farmers across Kent to provide advice about landscape management for breeding waders, so populations don’t just exist in fragmentation and are able to move about the landscape to find the food and nesting opportunities they require.
Discover more about RSPB Northward Hill here.
Did you know that the RSPB owns and manages over 200 nature reserves across the UK? Some of these sites are run as working farms. Discover more about nature-friendly farming at our reserves on our website.
Volunteers across the UK are coming together and getting involved to help farmland wildlife, including farmer Stuart and volunteers Anne and John from the Peak District, who took part in our Dark Peak Wader survey. Watch the video here
Together, we have the power to make a real difference to our grasslands and their precious wildlife – as shoppers, farmers, businesses and leaders. Find out more about how buying Fair To Nature food products can help here
Let’s pass our wild isles on to the next generation in better shape than we inherited them.
Main image: Aerial shot of Northward Hill RSPB Reserve, 2012. © Rolf Williams (rspb-images.com)