Written by Chloe Jackson, Wilder Pentwyn Project Officer
In October 2021, Radnorshire Wildlife Trust decided to try something new… rewilding.
We took out a £1.5 million loan and purchased ‘Wilder Pentwyn Farm’, a 164-acre upland sheep and beef farm in mid-Wales (previously 400 ewes and 30 suckler cows).
Then we created an ambitious 30-year vision and began fundraising to pay the loan off. As the smallest mainland Wildlife Trust in the UK, this was a big step with a not insignificant risk for Radnorshire Wildlife Trust, as the fundraising target was significantly higher than anything we’d achieved in the last 10 years. Rewilding is also a land management practice that can attract controversy, despite RWT having effectively rewilded over half of its Gilfach Nature Reserve. However, with wildlife declining at such an alarming rate, we decided it was no-longer enough to protect and manage fragmented pockets of wildlife as standalone units. Instead, we need to think about landscape scale management, increasing connectivity and reinstating natural processes so that nature can take care of itself. Rewilding is affordable, scalable and creates new habitat and opportunity for both wildlife and people.
Our conviction that there is a need for a site that aims to show leadership around changes that can be made for nature and climate on farmland in Wales, while starting conversations around extensive process-lead management, where nature is put in the driving seat; what rural business diversification looks like; how rewilding can support the local economy and diversify food supply, and what productive land means in the 21st Century, has been proven by the overwhelming support and interest we’ve received.
The initial steps we took were to undertake baseline monitoring at Pentwyn, and to introduce eight Belted Galloway cattle, to replicate the lost large herbivores of the past, who are equipped with GPS collars which provide us with key insight into their use of the site, while allowing us to subtly protect sensitive features. Next to join Pentwyn Farm were two Tamworth pigs, followed by four Welsh mountain ponies. By co-grazing these animals together, we have put scruffiness and disturbance back in the landscape through each of their different grazing behaviors – pigs rootle and turn over soil, creating bare ground and opportunity for wildflowers and seeds to germinate, cattle poach up ground with their hooves, knock branches off trees, browse hedges and leave tussoky grass for small mammals to seek cover in, while ponies create tighter grazed lawn areas, good for basking insects. We opted for an extensive grazing regime using low levels of hardy British livestock which can stay on site all year round, to mimic the behavior of their lost, wild, ancestors. This involved removing internal gates to allow livestock to roam freely. And without the introduction of large predators, our farmers instead fill this role and ensure the numbers fall and rise as animals leave site to be made into meat. We are proud to have supported our Grazier launch a line of beef boxes, 100% grass-fed and finished without the use of any grain, chemicals, or fertilisers.
Tamworth pigs fill the ecological niche of the Wild Boar at Wilder Pentwyn
“I'm a local farmer and have taken on the grazing at Pentwyn Farm, as well as three other Radnorshire Wildlife Trust sites. It's a chance for me and my family to expand our business and try something different, at low risk. I've always been interested in selling beef boxes direct to consumers, but I've never had the chance to do it until now. With beef from the Belted Galloways at Pentwyn, I delivered the boxes locally and people were excited when they received them. It was the first time I'd met people eating the meat I'd produced and that was very rewarding.” – Dale, Grazier at Pentwyn Farm
Dale, the Grazier at Pentwyn Farm
We’re letting nature find a way at Wilder Pentwyn, providing time and space for dynamic and shifting vegetation communities, for example grassland may become scrub and then shift back again. However, we decided that we need to kick start natural processes and create suitable conditions for new species to establish quickly. Not prescriptive management for a set number of orchids on a field-by-field basis, but an overall driver to reinstate a wildflower seed bank, create space for nature, and then let things ebb and flow. If we think about rewilding as a scale, you could describe some of our work as active rather than passive rewilding. We are carrying out targeted habitat work with the aim of restoring nature to the point where it is able to take care of itself.
In September 2023 I was employed as full-time Wilder Pentwyn Project Officer to increase our capacity to drive change on site and engage with people living around the site. As a result, we now have a dedicated group of over 20 volunteers carrying out surveys and practical work, a farm cluster group consisting of 15 local landowners coming together to share resource and knowledge and to learn about nature-lead management, and a range of well-attended public events delivered at Pentwyn.
Habitat work carried out so far has included low-impact forestry work, using continuous cover forestry principles, to restore an ancient woodland site (currently designated as ‘Plantation on Ancient Woodland Site’) through the phased removal of the non-native Larch and Sitka spruce. The thinning work has created more open space and allowed more light into the wood, which will encourage natural regeneration as seed spreads from nearby native broadleaf trees. Hay, from a local private nature reserve, rich in Yellow rattle seed, also known as ‘the meadow maker’, has been spread on grasslands, to help parasitize on dominant grasses and allow a wider diversity of flower (forbe) species to thrive. We’ve also capitalized on the hard work of the pigs by spreading wildflower seeds on the bare ground that they have turned over…. The perfect conditions for seeds to germinate! We have planted new hedges on external boundaries to increase shelter, connectivity and berries available for food and laid others using mechanical hedge laying, a cost effective technique which has proved popular, sparking interest and debate. .
Volunteers hard at work with some early habitat creation
Next, we plan to break land drains, reversing previous human intervention to hold back rain water and create wet grassland and marsh habitat. We are also planning work to create shallow pools, ponds, and scrapes, putting back lost open water – in the last 100 years over a million ponds have been lost from our landscape in the UK. Open water is increasingly valuable for livestock and wildlife to drink from, while giving space for amphibians and insects such as broad-bodied chaser dragonfly. Our volunteers have been busy carrying out botanical surveys to identify nearby thriving local meadows, on private land, to source green hay from (importantly – these landowners care for their meadows without the use of artificial fertilizers). By spreading the green hay at Wilder Pentwyn Farm, we’ll be introducing new seed stock and increasing the diversity of our own grasslands. However, there are some rare and declining species that we are unlikely to see at Wilder Pentwyn as a result of green hay spreading, so we will instead have to introduce these species directly. This will include Wood bitter vetch, Mountain pansies, Globeflowers, Melancholy thistle, and even uncommon lichen such as Tree lungwort. We’ll also plant trees in suitable locations, to increase the connectivity of the woodlands at Pentwyn but also increase more open habitat such as wood pasture.
A key part of our vision is the creation of a market garden at WilderPentwyn Farm. We want to demonstrate how we can make space for nature while still producing food. We welcomed two market garden tenants to live in the bungalow at Pentwyn, with 7-acres of land. Their plan is to run a small commercial, mixed holding run on regenerative principles - building soil carbon, soil health, maximising water retention and building biodiversity. The plans include an orchard, raised beds for vegetables, microgreens, mushrooms and a small number of outdoor chickens, who’ll make home in a Chicken Tractor!. An abundant space of diverse food! Currently just 0.2% of Wales is market garden. An increase to 2% would provide enough to ensure the whole of Wales gets its 5-a-day from home grown, local, vegetables.
In January 2024 we announced that we successfully repaid the £1.5 million loan due to a huge number of kind donations from our supporters and donors. Even better, we raised nearly £200,000 more than our target, funding important habitat restoration and improvements to the site infrastructure. Now the loan is repaid, we can focus our full efforts on delivering the vision and turning that into a reality. Anything else that we raise from here further secures short-term habitat improvements to create a lasting impact on the landscape that contributes to our overarching vision.
“We want to see nature increase on the land, draw people in, give them a sense of well-being, moments of wonder and hope. Hope for all our futures.” - James Hitchcock, Chief Executive Officer, Radnorshire Wildlife Trust
Read our vision here for more information: https://www.rwtwales.org/our-projects/pentwyn-vision-future
If you would like to donate and support our vision for Pentwyn, follow this link: https://www.rwtwales.org/appeals/wilder-pentwyn-appeal
Check out information on visiting the site here: Wilder Pentwyn Farm | Radnorshire Wildlife Trust (rwtwales.org) and sign up to our e-news for regular updates on the site and our events.
Comments