Visit to Wild Woodbury Saturday July 6th, 2024

Despite the gales and torrential rain, a cheery band of intrepid explorers headed off to Wild Woodbury in deepest, darkest Dorset.

We were spurred on by memories of the enthusiastic and interesting talk given by Rob Farrington in January about Wild Woodbury, near Bere Regis and this was to be our quest: what had happened to this site, acquired in 2021 by Dorset Wildlife Trust?

Our guide for the day was Seb Elwood and, as we turned into the car park, the rain stopped, Seb greeted us and all would be well. Since 2021, the area of farmland has been allowed to rewild. From bare earth have sprouted meadows, completely naturally, no seeding has taken place apart from nature’s own handiwork. Standing at the top of the site, surveying the surrounding fields, it is hard to comprehend where the flowers and plants have come from as the view shows neatly planted crops all around, but nature brings its own.

Seb explained how this part of the site will become an open area of meadow, accessible to everyone (and their dogs!) and so providing an amenity to the nearby village of Bere Regis. There are plans for a farm shop and picnic areas to encourage locals and visitors from further away to enjoy the site and to refresh their spirits. The main project over the past three years has been to return the waterways that traverse the land to their natural courses. A lot of work has gone into removing the agricultural drainage (from the top of the hill it appears that the stream ran uphill!) and allow the streams to run where nature intended.

Fauna has begun to return to the site, all carefully logged and recorded in order to show how the rewilding is benefiting the natural order of things. Seb told us that the fields were bare earth when Dorset Wildlife moved onto site. This soon changed and became covered with signs of mice and after that, signs of owls, predating on the mice!

Seb was a knowledgeable and interesting host and guide. He answered the many questions from our interested members. Seb’s enthusiasm was infectious and we were all stimulated and our quest was complete. We hope to go back in the future to see what happens next. So much has been done in three years.

What will the next three years hold?

by Emma Procter.