Wildlife in the Rural Landscape

The Landscape of Today

As a predominantly rural county, the wildlife and countryside of Essex is strongly influenced by the changing practices in agriculture. The landscape of today is one that has come about as a result of thousands of years of man's cultivation of the land, yet it is within the past 150 years that the most dramatic and rapid changes have occurred.

With the advent of effective land management systems, increasingly efficient mechanical equipment and development in chemical controls of pests and diseases, so agricultural pattern in the county has rapidly altered from that of the 19th century. The pattern of small scale farms using labour intensive techniques and manual skills has changed to one of large scale field patterns, monoculture cropping and high input / high output arable farming. Farming practices that once used 20-30 labourers operating with hand tools are now carried out by a single worker with a tractor.

Farming is not the only industry to have changed in this way in the county. Many of the other rural industries and practices have either disappeared or declined to a mere fraction of their former scale. Willow cropping for basket and hurdle making, fencing and thatching has declined as the demand for the products of this industry has changed, and with it a significant decrease in the area of willow coppice habitat has occurred.

Wildfowiing, once a major rural industry in Essex, has declined to the level of a countryside recreation, yet in the 18th and 19th centuries there were hundreds of decoy ponds being operated in the county. Nearly all these flight ponds, valuable man-made habitats, have been lost as marshes have been drained and arable fields expanded.

Hedgelaying, coppicing and stacking have similarly declined as alternative fuel and material sources such as oil, plastic and metals have become readily available, so that the rural landscape of today throughout most of our county bears little resemblance to that of 150 years ago.

Wildlife and Rural Essex

Many changes have occurred to our rural landscape as a result of changing demands upon our rural industries. Since 73% of our county is farmed, and far and away the largest single land use type, these changes are very significant. Although much of the value to wildlife in rural areas comes from woods, meadows and linear features, arable fields are also a unique part of the landscape.

Without the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, open arable fields harboured abundant wild plants such as corncockle and cornflower, whilst animals like harvest mice, hares and grey partridges were common. Regrettably, spraying, ultra efficient drainage and the virtual disappearance of winter stubbles has led to a serious decline in the population of these species along with many others.

Renewing the farmed landscape is both necessary and entirely possible. Existing semi-natural and valued habitats such as marshes, woods, ponds and hedges, crucial due to their non re-creatability, must be both maintained and protected from intensification of drainage, ploughing and re-seeding. Valued habitats that have been degraded or neglected can be restored and enhanced by, for example, coppicing woodlands, gapping-up old hedges, raising water levels and controlling scrub in good pasture. Opportunities must be imaginatively seized to create new habitats; where appropriate existing habitats can be extended, if possible using natural succession. Although more grassland, wetland, hedges, woodland and heath are obvious choices, any strategy should encompass the exciting possibilities offered by new land uses such as enhanced field margins, linking isolated fragments of habitat, developing effective coastal and river corridors, creating sacrificial geese pastures on the coast, and re-creating coastal habitat by allowing retreat from selected sea-wall lines.

Farming will remain the major land use in our county. Its scale means that quite small percentage changes in land use as suggested will have great benefits for wildlife; coupled with an increase in sympathetic practices such as less insecticides, more spring planting, more hay, and late mowing of grass, the potential for improvement is enormous.

Targets for 2000

• Increase the range and diversity of wildlife habitats within the rural landscape of Essex.
• Ensure that all existing habitats within the rural landscape are well managed.
• Create new areas of wildlife habitat within the rural landscape, in keeping with the existing natural habitat of the county.
• Aim to restore the numbers and area of rural semi-natural habitat by 50%.

Achieving the Rural Aims

With much of the rural landscape in private ownership, the achievement of these aims can only be through the farming industry and changing agricultural policies. The reformed CAP has a limited life, and new policies will replace it. Support will be given to measures maintaining the rural economy, yet aimed towards environmental target. This aid could be offered with conditions not connected to output that will make rural features a source of income, and guarantee more employment.

• Promote the continued reform of the CAP to enhance the environment.
• Encourage farmers and landowners to enter into the newly established wildlife friendly schemes such as Set-aside options, the Essex Coast ESA etc, and to increase the production of grazing livestock.
• Encourage farmers to farm using less insecticides and to tolerate a wider spectrum of weeds in crops.
• Encourage the greater use of the products of rural crafts that will benefit wildlife (coppice products, fencing materials, handtools, charcoal and firewood, thatching materials, honey etc)
• Promote the retention of existing areas of high rural landscape value, and encourage other areas to achieve similar standards through the available schemes and initiatives.