ESSEX WILDLIFE TRUST FOCUS:
VIEWS FROM THE NATURE RESERVES OF ESSEX
Enriching our landscape - an Essex success story
ANDREW MAY1 AND DAVID SMART2
1Conservation Manager and 2Warden
Abbotts Hall Farm, Great Wigborough, Colchester, COS 7RZ.
Abstract
The plight of many formerly common farmland birds and other wildlife is well documented and the
impacts resultant from the change from unintensive to intensive management of cereal fields and
grasslands are summarised. The various habitat creation schemes and changes to farming methods
that the Essex Wildlife Trust has implemented are discussed, with the aim of demonstrating that the
decline of farmland species can be reversed, if farmland habitat infrastructure and management are
re-assessed and modified.
Introduction
Essex Wildlife Trust purchased Abbotts Hall Farm in February 2000 to further its aims of conserving
farmland wildlife and coastal marshes. The farm is situated alongside the Blackwater Estuary SSSI,
which is one of the largest estuarine complexes in East Anglia, with the farm lying close to the
RSPB's Old Hall Marshes, the National Trust's Copt Hall land and the Essex Wildlife Trust's
Tollesbury Wick reserve. In October 2002 over 200 acres of low-lying land behind a 3.5km seawall
was used to create the largest coastal re-alignment in Europe (May 2003). Furthermore, Essex
Wildlife Trust has been creating various habitats, diversifying the arable crops and improving
wildlife corridors throughout the farm. The farm has recently been opened to members of the
public during the week.
Farming and agricultural practices can have significant indirect effects on non-agricultural species.
The decline in crop diversity has had an adverse effect on Grey Partridge Perdix perdix, Skylark
Alauda arvensis, Brown Hare Lepus europaeus and Lapwing Vanellus vanellus. On the other hand,
certain changes to farmland can bring considerable benefits. These include increasing the range of
habitats, improving hedgerows and field margins with less cutting, and decreasing inputs of fertilisers,
herbicides and pesticides.
Before the Trust purchased the farm in 2000 the main cropping regime for over 30 years was
dominated by growing wheat. Since then, several changes have also been introduced to the farmland
including the reintroduction of sheep, increasing the diversity of arable crops, an organic trial and
a programme of hedgerow coppicing and planting. Under the Countryside Stewardship Scheme,
field margins and beetle banks have also been established. This is supporting Biodiversity Action
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 21 (2004)
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