00:00Hi there, I'm Helen Adara, I'm Head of Conservation Land Management at the CRT
00:04and today I'm at Green Farm which is one of our properties in Surrey and I'm
00:09currently stood in a pine plantation which is one of the areas we're going to
00:12fell as part of our Green Farm vision. So the pine plantation that I'm stood in at
00:16the moment was planted in around the mid 1900s. These pines are now reached a
00:22harvestable age, they've reached maturity and they're ready to be felled as
00:25commercial pine plantation crop. This then presents a really exciting
00:28opportunity for the CRT because we get to decide how we want to manage this
00:31habitat going forwards and the decision that we've taken is to revert this
00:35area and a few others on Green Farm to the heathland habitat that once was here
00:39prior to the pines being planted. Hi I'm Victoria Hawkins and I work for Natural
00:43England. I lead on the Heathland Connections Nature Recovery Project and that
00:47project is all about connecting up the fragmented heathland that we have in
00:51Surrey to create a more resilient landscape and to help reverse the
00:55biodiversity crisis we're experiencing in this country.
00:57Heathland is one of the rarest habitats in the world and we're incredibly lucky to
01:01have about 12% of it in Surrey but they're all isolated pockets and what
01:05we really need is to increase the connectivity between them so that our
01:09species can move freely and that's why projects like this with the CRT are
01:12really crucial. For millennia people have been using the resources they found on
01:16Heathland for firewood, for fuel, for grazing and it's really important that we
01:19maintain that open characteristic because that's where our species have
01:23evolved to live. Although much of the pine and pine plantation areas is going to be
01:27felled we're going to keep as much standing deadwood as we can. The reason
01:31we're doing that is because there's really important habitat for birds such
01:33as woodpeckers that will be using these standing deadwood areas to forage for
01:37things like beetles and insects and other grubs which live in the rotting bark.
01:40So we've talked a little bit about daytime wildlife. Nighttime wildlife uses the
01:45pine plantations as well so species such as bats really like pine because the
01:49bark's so flaky there's lots of crevices in the bark so they'll use pine trees to take shelter in and use as nighttime.
01:55So one thing that we can do to make sure that we don't take away this habitat for bats is take potential roosting feature surveys ahead of any felling work and where we can find potential roosting features on trees we'll make sure that these ones are also safeguarded and protected from any of our felling operations.
02:12So we're really lucky at Green Farm to have a really diverse range of habitats so here I am stood in our sweet chestnut coppice which will continue to be managed as such on a regular coppicing regime.
02:23We're hoping to be able to use the coppice products on our own CRT properties and also sell to local people local businesses which is a really nice thing to be able to do.
02:33One species that really likes coppice is the hazel or common door mouse and we're really hopeful that we might have those species here which we're going to be finding out in the coming months.
02:42So after the pines have been felled this is the exact kind of habitat we're looking to create.
02:47We've got areas where there's more open heathlands where we've got different kinds of heathers and mossy layer on the floor and then behind me we've got some pine trees and there's a few young oats coming through.
02:59So we're trying to really create this open mosaic habitat which is suited to a really wide range of species.
03:05Rather than just having pine plantation on site we're trying to really increase the breadth and abundance of different kind of habitats which is just really really good for a wide range of nature as opposed to just sort of single
03:16and more general species. So green farm is already a really important habitat for lots of heathland specialist species.
03:22These include the darkford warbler which is a bird that enjoys using the gorse and open heathland mosaic.
03:27We also have the growling butterfly which feeds on heather and we've got reptiles such as adders and other lizards that will live in the heathland understory.
03:37And what will be really exciting for me is that as a result of this heathland reversion project we can start to see some of the rarer species coming back to green farm such as the sand lizard.
03:46So I hope this video has been helpful in giving you better understanding of what we're seeking to achieve at green farm over the coming years which is making a more rich biodiverse tapestry of habitats and especially looking at reverting more of our land to heathland.
04:00So whilst green farm is really important for nature we know it's really important to people too so we'd love to continue to welcome you to come here and walk your dogs or just simply spend a bit of time out in nature in this wonderful Surrey countryside.
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