Living Landscapes
The West Cambridgeshire Hundreds Project
Scheme area: 4,000 hectares
Benefits include: Habitat restoration and creation, landscape linkage, recreational opportunities and improved access for local communities and visitors
The West Cambridgeshire Hundreds Living Landscape project is focused on a cluster of ancient woodlands on the heavy boulder clay soils of Cambridgeshire. Places of pilgrimage for local families for the breath-taking displays of bluebells, wood anemones, and primroses in the spring, they also support flourishing populations of the much rarer oxlip, in the UK confined to a small area of eastern England, and more subtle shade-loving plants such as Herb Paris and ferns. This is also the home of the black hairstreak butterfly, and other scarce species such as white admiral thrive. Woodland rides, the wide flowery paths which were once used for extracting timber and are now popular with walkers, buzz with bumblebees and the chirp of grasshoppers, and rare beetles take nectar from the flowers. Typical woodland birds such as nuthatches, woodpeckers and woodcock are supplemented in summer with a rich chorus of warblers and nightingales.
The West Cambridgeshire Hundreds Living Landscape project aims to enhance this unique biodiversity through better management, maintaining or reinstating traditional coppicing, widening rides so that more sun reaches the forest floor and a greater diversity of flowers provide nectar for butterflies and other insects all summer long.
Beyond the existing woods, the project will focus on expansion and linkage of habitats, concentrating on reconnecting the ancient woodlands and enhancing the hedgerow network across the project area. It is working in partnership with local land-owners to identify opportunities for environmental enhancements and to coordinate action across property boundaries to increase landscape connectivity over a large area, and accomplish greater success than could be realised by each land owner working independently. It is a joint project between local land-owners, the Wildlife Trust, Woodland Trust, National Trust, Forestry Commission, Natural England and Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group.
Click here to listen to Brian Eversham, Chief Executive, explaining Living Landscapes and what it means for our three counties.
Click here for a map of the Living Landscape project areas.