Tuesday 31 March 2015

Devon heathland saved for native wildlife

Clayhidon Turbary nature reserve that sits in the heart of the Blackdown Hills in East Devon is being nursed back to health thanks to the work of a leading local wildlife charity.

This area of Outstanding Natural Beauty covers 34 acres and is made up of heathland, marshy areas and wet woodland – a series of landscape types that were once common but which have disappeared from much of the English countryside in recent decades.

Clayhidon Turbary was once used by local people who grazed their cattle there and who also cut peat from the site to use as fuel to heat their homes.

However, in recent years these uses have declined and the heathland has begun to lose its special character with scrub and young woodland colonising its once open areas.

If this situation had been allowed to continue then the area’s special character and wildlife would soon have been lost.

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