Old orchards were once a common feature throughout the countryside, but small traditional orchards are increasingly rare. In Gloucestershire it is estimated that over 75% of our old orchards have now been lost. But what is so special for wildlife in old orchards?
An orchard can be a really valuable habitat for a wide range of species from fungi and lichens, through insects and other invertebrates, to birds and mammals (small and not so small). As there is no herbicide use in most old orchards, the range of species will be even greater.
The trees themselves play host to a variety of mosses, lichens and often mistletoe which has a national stronghold in the Severn Vale. The old trees can be fantastic for hole-nesting birds. The large amount of deadwood in the trees provides an important habitat for insects and fungi including some very rare ones. For example, the Noble Chafer (Gnorimus nobilis) is a UK priority beetle associated with old orchards. It is known from at least twelve sites in Gloucestershire - in the Forest of Dean and Severn Vale - and seems to be particularly associated with decaying plum trees. If you have an orchard, particularly an older one with lots of decay, contact us for a survey form for submission to the Peoples Trust for Endangered Species.
With such a wealth of fruit and insects available in old orchards, it is only to be expected that there is a wide range of feeding opportunities for birds and mammals. Birds such as woodpeckers (green and great-spotted), nuthatches, treecreepers and tits may be seen on tree trunks and hollow branches. Fieldfares, starlings, redwings, thrushes, blackbirds and jays will be feeding on the fruit (on or off the tree).
If it has escaped sprays and fertilisers, and particularly if traditional management such as a hay cut or grazing has been kept up, the ground beneath can be covered with wild flowers such as cowslips, daisies, knapweed and trefoils.
The Habitat Action Plan for old orchards in Gloucestershire has been redrafted and the new version has recently been accepted by all members of the Gloucestershire Biodiversity Action Plan partnership. It lays out the state of the county's orchards, their importance in landscape and historic terms as well as for wildlife, and what must be done to safeguard and improve the future. GOG takes a leading role. The entire Biodiversity action plan can be viewed at Biodiversity Action Plan for Gloucestershire. This is the local response to the 1994 international Convention on Biological Diversity and sets out a strategy for conserving and enhancing wild species and habitats over the next 20 years.
With judicious pruning and planting it is quite possible to bring old orchards back to vigour, whilst retaining their conservation value.
Specialist wildlife advice is available from:
- Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group
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Gloucestershire FWAG
c/o Defra,
Government Buildings,
Saw Mills End,
Corinium Avenue,
Gloucester
GL4 3DE
Phone: 01452 627487
Fax: 01452 627483
Email: gloucester@fwag.org.uk.
Website: www.fwag.org.uk - Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust
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Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust
Robinswood Hill Country Park
Gloucester
GL4 6SX
Phone: 01452 383333
Fax: 01452 383334
Email: info@gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk
Website: www.gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk - Gloucestershire Naturalists' Society
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Anyone with an interesting wildlife sighting can contact the Gloucestershire Naturalists'
Society. Among other things, this organisation has a team of volunteer county recorders each
of whom specialises in a group of species, eg plants, mammals, beetles, fungi. Their details
can be found on the Society's website, see the records page. -
Website: www.glosnats.org.uk
- You can also log sightings with the Gloucestershire Centre for Environmental Records (GCER) Church House, Standish, Stonehouse, Gloucestershire GL10 3EU. 01453 822761 gcer@gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk
People's Trust for Endangered Species
The Peoples Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) are mapping traditional orchards in Gloucestershire and other counties. They are also interested in their ecology, particularly looking for the rare noble chafer beetle. For a survey form, please contact either PTES (Anita Burrough) or the Gloucestershire Orchard Group. There is also an excellent PTES leaflet “Traditional Orchards – A Guide to Wildlife & Management” which advises on how to encourage wildlife in your orchard; (for example the use of standing dead wood and reducing chemical use).
For photos of the noble chafer beetle and dead wood as a habitat/other BAP species in Gloucestershire orchards, view the presentation given by Dr. Keith Alexander, freelance ecological consultant, at the Gloucestershire Orchard Group Annual General Meeting on 12/2/08. (Copyright Dr. Keith Alexander, Ted Green (Ancient Tree Forum), Peoples Trust for Endangered Species, Rob Homan (Gloucestershire Naturalists Society) for the leaf miner and Ray Barnett.)
Traditional Orchards UK BAP Priority Habitat Status
Joan Ruddock, governmental minister for Biodiversity, and a team of media, visited GOG chairman Dave Kaspar and Helen Brent-Smith at their traditional orchards at Days Cottage Apple Juice, Brookthorpe, near Gloucester on Tuesday 28 August 2007! She announced that Ministers approve priority species and habitats list to focus future conservation action. Please note that, at present, there is no new legislation to protect them, but this may well change.
The news release is http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/2007/070828b.htm
This is following Natural England’s detailed ecological surveys at half a dozen sites throughout the UK (including Gloucestershire), showing that traditional orchards are a unique habitat for many fauna and flora. Orchards now have National Priority Habitat status, which is excellent news. We are privileged that GOG was in the media for Joan Ruddock’s announcement! Helen was on the Today BBC Radio 4 programme and Days Cottage was on the lunchtime news on BBC and ITV.
Natural England Report On The Biodiversity Of Traditional Orchards Published
In April 2009, Natural England published a research report about traditional orchards entitled Biodiversity studies of six traditional orchards in England. The project was carried out to help fill significant gaps in biodiversity information about this habitat. The results will be valuable for informing orchard managers and advisers about orchard biodiversity, for the development of condition assessment methods and for the consideration of research priorities, particularly now that traditional orchards are a UK priority habitat in the Biodiversity Action Plan.
Several species groups were surveyed in detail: fungi, invertebrates, and the lichens and bryophytes (mosses and liverworts) growing on trees (ie epiphytes). Habitat survey and collection of management information provided the context for the detailed survey of the chosen species groups. The overall numbers of species found in the species surveys were: 131 epiphytic lichens, 50 epiphytic bryophytes, 175 fungi and 522 invertebrate species. Different orchards had particular biodiversity value for different groups. Priority BAP species occurred at 3 sites and priority BAP grassland and hedgerow habitats occurred singly or together at 5 sites. Among the epiphytic lichens, 16 nationally rare or scarce species were found, including one species on Schedule 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, while 13 provisional Red Data List or rare fungi species were found. A total of 45 nationally rare or scarce invertebrates were recorded.
The report (NERR025) and a summary Research Information Note (RIN025) are available on the Natural England website, along with other publications published by Natural England.
NERR025 - Biodiversity studies of six traditional orchards in England
Alternatively go to the Natural England web site.
and search for NERR025 and RIN025 within the ‘Publications’ part of the web site.
Thanks to Dr. Heather Robertson for this article.
Footnote: one of the orchards studied was Broadway orchard near Minsterworth, Gloucestershire, and that the report (272 pages) is free to download (thanks to Chris Wedge of Natural England chris.wedge@naturalengland.org.uk)
Mistletoe Marble Moth
Through the National Trust Orchard Project the National Trust are funding Butterfly Conservation to undertake a survey of the Mistletoe Marble Moth. Butterfly Conservation have produced a very informative fact sheet.
Surveying
If you live in the counties of Somerset, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire or Monmouthshire and fancy a winter’s walk, then, in trying to keep to a Christmas theme, you could help us by searching for mines of the Mistletoe Marble Celypha woodiana, one of the recent additions to the UK Biodiversity Action Plan, on Mistletoe. The moth is particularly associated with orchards, especially where Mistletoe abounds, but occasionally can be found away from such sites. The mines are rather inconspicuous at this time of year, being crescent-shaped and marked with and entrance hole (a), but can be found from December onwards. The larva resumes feeding later in spring, with the mine becoming more like an inflated blister (b), these being more obvious towards May. Mines can occur at low density, but thicker, more succulent clumps of Mistletoe appear to be preferred. Binoculars can aid searching! If you do find this species, please forward the record to your County Moth Recorder and to Mark Parsons (mparsons@butterfly-conservation.org), preferably with a supporting photograph of the mine. Please remember not to enter private land or pick mistletoe unless you have the permission of the landowner.
Sarah-Ann Mold, Project Assistant, Moths Count
Direct Line 01929 406009 samold@butterfly-conservation.org
40 years of saving butterflies, moths and their habitats
More on Mistletoe
Mr. Jonathan Briggs (ecologist and mistletoe expert), Mistletoe Matters, 46 Arrowsmith Drive, Stonehouse, Gloucestershire GL10 2QR 01453 791135 Mobile 07789 684585
jonathanbriggs@mistletoe.org.uk http://www.mistletoes-r-us.co.uk
www.mistletoe.org.uk www.mistle.co.uk and Mistletoe League survey project www.british.mistletoe.org.uk
