Manaton

The landowner raises cattle and sheep on this farm in East Dartmoor. At the bottom of the valley, old woodland opens up onto ‘rhos pasture’, the rare marshland habitat that supports abundant wildflowers and small pearl-bordered fritillaries. Her flock of hardy Hebridean sheep spend most the year on and around the nearby rocks, grazing the heath where cuckoos lay their eggs before coming down to the shelter of the fields to have their lambs in April. The cows spend their lives in the valley, where the landowner uses the small fields to support a regenerative grazing system, moving the cows every two or three days and returning them to the same spot many weeks or months later once the grass and flowers has had time to flower and set seed. It is this approach that supports the diversity of wildlife, with yellowhammers and linnets breeding in high numbers in the hawthorn and gorse and feeding their young on the abundant insects found in the grass.

Protect Earth was contacted by the landowner because she was concerned about the lack of shade for her animals, especially with the rising temperatures due to climate change. When we went to visit we found some evidence of rewilding, mainly oak saplings, but they were being destroyed by sheep and cows before they became sturdy enough to survive. We planned for just 15 new trees strategically placed, and protected with cattle guards, which would eventally become large shade trees.