©David Green
The management of this site by Kent Wildlife Trust has created areas of coarse grass and broken short turf, which encourages a myriad of species to flourish. The habitat preference of Straw Belle for short, warm, herb-rich grassland with a mosaic of bare patches for early stages and tussocks for adult stages has been achieved through light cattle grazing.
Kent Wildlife Trust’s Estates Team has a combined total of 100 years of conservation grazing experience on nature reserves. With the aim to mimic natural grazing processes as far as possible, targeted conservation grazing is used on sites like National Nature Reserves where there is a well-established habitat condition to be maintained.
The management of cattle grazing is essential for these moths and for many other species that thrive at our Lydden Temple Ewell National Nature Reserve. The Straw Belle Moth fills a very similar niche to our wart biter crickets, another rarity that is restricted to a handful of sites in the country.Ian Rickards, Area Manager
The view from Lydden Temple Ewell reserve, photo by Ray Lewis. Photo by Ray Lewis
Margery Thomas, Hothfield Volunteer and regular columnist looks at the lack of butterfly sightings in recent months, the work volunteers are doing to remove bracken and how this all impact the wider management of the last remaining fragments of heathland…
Nina Jones, Protected Area Warden takes a moment ahead of National Marine Week to explain what we can individually and collectively do to help restore and protect nature on our coasts.
With input from Simon Bateman-Brown, Head of Land Management, and Evan Bowen-Jones, Chief Executive of Kent Wildlife Trust, we explore the conservation work we have done at Heather Corrie Vale since attaining validation against the Wilder Carbon Standard,…
