Healthy Trees on the Moor
Dartmoor is known for its wide open spaces, for its sweeping scenes of heather and grassland, peaked by granite tors. This is where the iconic Dartmoor ponies graze, drawing people from across the globe to visit this cherished landscape. Less well known to a wider audience are the steep wooded valleys where the rivers that emerged as a trickle on the high moor, pick up speed and tumble their way between the trees. In these steep valleys, there are remnants of truly ancient woodland, relics from a previous time when these oak canopies adorned with mosses and lichens earned the name of temperate rainforests. Here the air is cooler and more humid and some of the greatest biodiversity finds a refuge, safe from the world outside.
But, from the highest granite tors to the rumbling river gorges, there is a transition point where the landscape blends from the open grazed moor to the deep woodland valleys. This bit in between is where, for hundreds of years, Dartmoor’s Commoners have made their living grazing livestock. It is not a means to great financial wealth but a way of life where, living on the margins requires resilience, and it is a lifestyle they are keen to protect. Travelling further back into the mists of Dartmoor time before the days of farming, these transitional zones of moorland were covered with low growing scrubby woodland of willow, rowan and birch that the ancient settlers cleared to create their early farm systems. They began to enclose areas of this wild land and tame it for their benefit. Even today, the remains of their stone banks, ditches and circular hut bases are clear to see across the high moor – ancestors of a very different time.
Today, we stand at a crossroads with some difficult decisions about which way to go. Going in reverse is not an option, though we can look back to past human activities to see a picture of what has gone before, but in looking forward, we need to make a choice. We have to consider balancing the needs for ecological loss and climate change with the passion and heritage of commoners’ livestock farms built up over centuries. Commoners, as with many farmers, are keen to protect their way of life and while conservationists promote habitat restoration, these viewpoints may be seen as two opposing ends of a scale - but is there a natural solution. Giving nature an opportunity to regain her foothold on the moor, breathing life back into areas of wild old moorland forest. This vision of trees on the moor is not one of ranks of exotic conifers but a sensitive way of working with nature. So, the question is, in moving on from this point, how and where do we start?
To tackle this set of complex issues, work has begun at looking at the future for trees on Dartmoor. It’s part of a £3 million project, ‘Our Common Cause: Our Upland Commons’, helping to secure the future of upland commons in England, led by the Foundation for Common Land. Twelve commons in four parts of the country are involved, including some in Dartmoor, including Holne, Harford and Ugborough Moors. Our Upland Commons has been made possible by funding from a number of trusts and the Heritage Lottery Fund. Work started with the ‘Healthy Trees for Tomorrow’ survey which will be used to support two small tree planting projects on two of the commons on Dartmoor. Instead of leaping in, wellies first, and planting trees in inappropriate places, Our Upland Commons area project officer, Tamsin Thomas says, “The project aims to better understand the number, age, distribution, health of individual trees on commons.” And by gathering accurate data on moorland trees, it “will inform experimental tree planting trials on Dartmoor.”
The looking back element of this project will “identify important areas of past tree regeneration, to better understand the mechanisms by which trees become established on commons.”
To date, these areas of trees have not been planted in a coordinated way (natural regeneration) and the only management of their spread has been the controlling effect of grazing by livestock and browsing of wild herbivores like deer.
The forward-looking component of the project will, “understand current and future threats (disease, climate warming, habitat change, wild fire, damage from livestock, deer and squirrels, effects of soil compaction, changing soil hydrology) and raise awareness of the importance of tree regeneration and scattered trees in the landscape, for wildlife and people.”
The Healthy Trees survey started this Summer at Holne, Harford and Ugborough Moors. A band of volunteers from around Dartmoor have been trained to use a specialised data gathering ‘app’ with mobile digital mapping. Locating groups and individual trees, the volunteers use digital technology in an ancient landscape to assess the condition of each tree. They look at the age, health, condition, species and size of each one, from the gnarly old hawthorns that have been standing for centuries to the newly establishing rowan saplings, fighting their way skywards through the gorse.
The team managing the Healthy Trees survey and supervising the volunteers is made up of Evolving Forests and Corylus Ecology. Their brief is to “identify areas of natural regeneration and establish a baseline in order to monitor the success and viability of such regeneration”. And through engagement with those with an interest in Dartmoor’s commons will “inform proposed tree planting plans for wildlife, natural flood management and livestock”.
Tamsin Thomas is the Project Officer for Dartmoor and, working with the contractors will co-design and implement a tree protection trial with Commoners and Landowners to increase tree numbers by locating and protecting areas of natural regenerating saplings and increasing numbers of trees in these areas. “This project comes at a critical time when common land faces the biggest changes in agricultural policy support for three generations, and when there is an urgent need to rectify past ecological damage and create resilience in the face of climate change. Commons are too small in number and in economic impact to register within national policy and planning, yet the landscapes and cultural heritage commoners manage are of disproportionately high value for biodiversity, water supply, carbon storage, historic environment, natural beauty and public access.” And the website goes on to say, “Centuries old farming practices on commons are unexpectedly relevant to many 21st century challenges, they can deliver nature recovery, flood management, carbon sequestration and wellbeing.” Our project is taking action now, seizing the moment for our commons and turning challenges into opportunities.
Written by Matt Parkins
For more details on the project, contact Tamsin Thomas, Project Officer (Dartmoor)
See the Our Upland Commons — Foundation for Common Land website
