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VCA Proposal Knepp Castle Estate Wildland Project VCA Proposal – Knepp Castle Estate Wildland Project A. Executive Summary The Knepp Castle Wildland Project is one the largest rewilding projects in lowland Europe, using a mix of grazing herbivores and the naturalisation of river and water systems to kick-start natural processes. Begun in 2001, the project has seen extraordinary successes in terms of both biodiversity and biomass. It is now considered a breeding hotspot for numerous rare species, including turtle doves, nightingales and purple emperor butterflies. An ecological baseline survey was undertaken in 2005, which provides a rare opportunity to monitor the changes in nature as result of the removal of previous farming and forestry practices. A first evaluation was made in 2015 though the results are not yet available. However the annual monitoring of flora and fauna already indicates a positive response to the rewilding efforts. The previous regime of mixed dairy and arable farming was proving to be highly unprofitable. Since switching to rewilding the estate’s landholding now makes a profit. B. Area Characteristics & Manager The Knepp Estate lies 45 miles from the centre of London in the heart of the Low Weald, an area of heavy clay soils. The Estate is criss crossed by Streams and rivers with large water bodies a lot of which have been restored to their floodplains. The Estate is 1400 ha Knepp Castle Estate comprises 1,400-hectares (3,500 acres) in the Low Weald in West Sussex in the southeast of England. The estate originates in the Middle Ages as one of King John’s hunting parks. It has been intensively farmed since the Second World War, with increasing chemical inputs since the 1970s. Its traditional small hedged fields and heavy clay, however, made it particularly unsuited to modern intensive farming practices. From 1980 to 2000 the present owner, Sir Charles Burrell (Charlie), took in hand tenant farms and created a large farming business based on 600 dairy cows and 2,000 acres of arable, with some sheep and beef as minor enterprises. But over that twenty year period the farm only occasionally made 1 profits and these were never large enough to pay for the working capital. In 2001, therefore, Charlie decided to give up intensive farming and switch to a new land-use regime based on ecological management principles. Gradually, over a period of six years, 1,100 ha of the land have been taken out of production and left to free development, influenced only by free- roaming grazing animals: fallow, red and roe deer, Exmoor ponies, old English longhorn cattle and Tamworth pigs. A long-term minimum intervention natural process-led area These are the drivers of the rewilding project – Tamworth Pig, Fallow Deer, Exmoor Ponies, Roe Deer, Old English Longhorn Cattle and Red Deer At the same time, he embarked on the restoration of wetlands, floodplains and natural water systems. A principal target was the River Adur, which runs through the estate. In the 1860s the river had been canalised to facilitate agricultural drainage. The canal was filled in and a 2.5km stretch of the river was returned to its old meanders on the floodplain. In addition, another 5 ½ kms of streams, brooks and ditches have been naturalised. In association with these restorations, efforts have been made to establish a population of one of the country’s most endangered tree species – the Black Poplar. In just over a decade Knepp estate has changed from a highly mechanised, fragmented landscape of fields and forestry with sharp, linear edges, to a complex mosaic of habitats with shifting margins, including hundreds of hectares of an emerging open-grown oak wood pasture system. The driving ethos behind the project remains one of minimal intervention, of self-willed land – putting nature back in the driving seat. Managing the stocking density of 2 the herbivores – a judgement that is made in consultation with Knepp Wildland’s advisory board of 22 ecologists – is about the only ongoing intervention. Having proved unprofitable as a farming business, under rewilding Knepp’s landholding now makes a profit. As well as subsidy from Single Farm Payment (SP) and Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) additional income is derived from the rental of post-agricultural farm buildings, rental of cottages previously tied to farm labour, and a camping and wildlife safari tourism business. The project is still considered to be an agricultural enterprise in that it produces meat from culling the grazing animals. This extensive method of meat production, somewhat like ranching, is very low cost – the animals live outside all year, there is no supplementary feeding and only essential human intervention. With access to browsing as well as grazing, the animals are conspicuously healthy and low maintenance. Knepp sells 75 tonnes (live weight) of high value, organic, free-roaming, pasture-fed beef, pork and venison per annum. C. Biodiversity Baseline Conditions In 2005 a baseline survey was undertaken to set the scene for evaluating changes in landscape, habitats, flora and fauna as result of rewilding. Many different groups were included, like vascular plants, lichens, butterflies & moths, beetles, amphibians, reptiles, breeding birds and bats. This is rarely done in conservation and provides a unique starting point for the rewilding process. Knepp rewilding project is now a hotspot for rare species like long-eared owls, barn owls, ravens, peregrine falcons, red kites, lesser spotted woodpeckers, woodlarks, cuckoos, spotted flycatcher, stonechat, lapwing and yellowhammers. It has 2% of the UK’s population of nightingales, and is a breeding hotspot for turtle doves – one of the few places where this bird, critically endangered in the UK, is actually increasing in numbers. It is also the top breeding spot in the UK for the rare and spectacular purple emperor butterfly. 13 out of the UK’s 18 species of bat can be found at Knepp, along with numerous rare moths and other red data species of beetle and fungi. D. Conservation Impact Assessment & Stakeholders Ongoing long-term monitoring, such as botanical quadrats, and butterfly and bird transects, begun in 2001, continues to record how nature is responding to the project. Scientists from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology have also set up a long-term monitoring project looking at changes in soil, invertebrate populations, and vegetation. Other ongoing monitoring includes fixed point photography, aquatic habitat and water quality surveys, and a variety of repeatable surveys across the taxonomic groups from molluscs to lepidoptera, from mammals through to reptiles and amphibians. Targeted surveys on other groups, such as mosses and beetles, are also now underway. The project is supported by Natural England and the Environment Agency. Numerous NGOs and conservation bodies have a close relationship with the Knepp Wildland project, notably the Sussex Wildlife Trust, Butterfly Conservation (UK), The Million Ponds Project, Woodland Trust, Forestry Commission, and the RSPB, which held an Operation Turtledove workshop at Knepp in the summer of 2015. The National Trust has held numerous conferences and workshops at Knepp, looking at the project as a potential model for its own conservation 3 efforts. Other engagement with the project includes Pasture for Life, Game & Wildlife Conservancy Trust, British Trust for Ornithology, Universities (Sussex, Sheffield Hallam, Oxford and Imperial College), Centre of Ecology & Hydrology, Country Landowners Association, National Farmers Union, and Wildlife Trusts from all over the UK. 2,500 people are Friends of the Knepp Wildland project, many of them from NGOs. 1,500 members of the public paid to go on guided wildlife-watching safaris of the project (www.kneppsafaris.co.uk) in 2015 (the second season of Knepp Safaris), and the public are free to use 28 kms of public footpaths around the estate. Charlie has himself guided around 400 landowners, journalists and representatives from NGOs on private tours of the project in 2015. Schools and other educational groups are invited as part of specific educational programmes, like Forest Schools and the national school curriculum. Knepp hosts MA and PhD students studying topics ranging from nightingales, worms and soil, liverfluke snails to free-roaming pigs, and habitat creation. Volunteer days engage the local community and other interested parties in data collection and recording. Knepp Wildland Camping and Safaris – a new venture started in 2014 is now turning over £120,000 and employing 2 people – a campsite manager and an Ecologist www.kneppsafaris.co.uk E. Next Steps for Registering the Area Registration and 1st audit will take place in 2016. Already now, a Conservation Management Plan is in place, and the annual ecological surveys will provide the basis for the future, yearly performance reports. 4 .
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