PRIVATE NATURE RESERVES
In 1996, with the help of the Somerset Wildlife Trust, we set out find whether there were other like minded people in Somerset who had bought land specifically for the benefit of wildlife and, if so, what were their needs and aspirations.
We excluded gardens and land owned with income as a priority e.g. commercial farms and commercial orchards. These potential wildlife resources are catered for by other organisations such as Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group and wildlife gardening groups.
By June 2004 we had registered 230 reserves ranging from 1 to 100 acres where the owners' prime concern is providing a good wildlife habitat, accounting for nearly1600 acres (665 ha).
For the most part these reserves are owned by people who have little, if any, training in habitat management and for the most part the land acquired has been agriculturally improved in the past. The trust has now included community held land into the network as the issues of management are much the same.
Although helping with surveying the reserves and encouraging proper management planning is an important starting point we have found that most owners also have problems with handling the practical aspects of good management e.g. the problem of cutting and removing hay from a 2 acre field - too small for an agricultural contractor and too large for normal garden equipment!
The Trust had previously not consciously catered for such needs and together we have set out to provide an improved self help service through their agency. The programme is developing with experience but we have provided the following:
* Annual all day seminars on a habitat management topic held at a reserve.
* Consolidated reading list of publications free, for sale or available at the Trust's library suitable for all levels of expertise.
* Low cost botanical surveys subsidised by the Trust and assistance with site planning
* Occasional informal visits to members' reserves.
* News bulletin on current topics relating to managing one's own reserve
* Telephone advice from Trust professionals.
* Booklet: 'Habitat Management Guide for Non-professionals'
We believe that there are many more Private Nature Reserves in the county but, without greater resources for publicity and visits, it is very difficult to find out where they are. Additionally, agencies specialising in agricultural land sales are now reporting that there is a distinct growth in demand for land for this kind of use (see FPDSavills Agricultural Research Briefing No.13; web site: www.fpdsavills.co.uk)
The Somerset Wildlife Trust welcomes the presence of so many tracts of sympathetically managed land to buffer the effects of intensive farming and provide bridges between professionally managed conservation sites. This has become increasingly important in the last few years as populations of species of common wildlife have been observed to be declining sharply. We have had enquiries from other parts of the country but as far as we know Somerset, Northern Ireland, Suffolk and Radnor are the only county trusts with fully established support structures for private reserve owners. We believe that as many as 9 other trusts have some measure of recognition of this kind of reserve.
We would dearly like to hear of other groups, private or community nature reserve trusts and private reserve owners so that we can start to develop a national approach and encourage more people to buy land with wildlife management in mind.
Contact the Somerset Wildlife Trust