Managing
sites for wildlife
Areas designed and dedicated to wildlife cannot just be fenced
of and left alone ‘to get on with it’. They need
managing to ensure firstly that an interesting and diverse
wildlife is established and later that it is retained, be that
interest birds, flowers, butterflies, mammals or whatever.
Without active management to prevent natural
succession the make up of the vegetation would change and
the original interest would soon be lost.
Management methods need to be sustainable, using the minimum
of resources. Regulated grazing by farm livestock is the best
and most sustainable way of managing grasslands. Flower rich
limestone grasslands being grazed in late summer and winter
and wet grasslands being grazed in summer and autumn. In both
cases hay crops may also be taken in mid summer.
Highland cattle being used to graze a steep
limestone grassland.
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