Weald to Waves

A brief post about an ecology talk at the Good Vibrations Society festival on the Ashdown Forest.

Weald to Waves is a connectivity project aiming to create a 50 mile wildlife corridor between Ashdown Forest and Climping Gap via the Knepp rewilding project. The project creates partnerships with landowners to promote regeneration and wildlife-friendly food production, and with communities and educators (e.g. via establishing a youth board of 17-25 year olds) to promote access and understanding.

In some ways it can be seen as a more practical version of Christo and Jean-Claude’s Running Fence (1972-6). As with the LNR at Rye Harbour it could therefore be considered as a type of Land Art.

The end goal is 10,000 hectares of contiguous space for wildlife. A Nature Recovery Network (NRN) is a key commitment of the Government’s 25 year environment plan.

Fig. 1 Weald to Waves wildlife corridor

The presentation made good use of image-compare technology to show the before-after effects of the work and help the audience visualise the issues. From an aesthetic point of view a rougher landscape is more natural to the eye as well. I note there may be parallel’s here with the move away from formal gardens in the UK.

With regard to the specific habitats, the following points are interesting:

• Ashdown Forest was a heavily farmed, barren landscape 100 years ago
• Heathland is a rare habitat that is more biodiverse than woodland
• Ashdown Forest contains 2.5% of the UK’s heathland
• The Forest Rangers advised eating venison (which is over-abundant and needs controlling) as one of the healthiest and eco-friendly approaches, as opposed to vegetarianism
• Rewilding is not just about leaving nature alone – it must be managed by humans since it is artificially bordered on all sides by human activity.
• At Climping Farm the key issue is battling coastal erosion

While the project has targeted larger land owners for maximum initial impact it also seeks to work at all levels down to individual gardens and provides advise on how to make your space more wildlife-friendly. Key points include:

• Provide water (if possible rainwater) – e.g. dig a pond
• Allow deadwood to sit in the landscape, into which it will rot providing nutrition and creating other habitats as it does so. It can be worked with for aesthetic impact e.g. made sculptural
• Compost as much as possible

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

• Weald to Waves wildlife corridor. At: https://photo515050level3.files.wordpress.com/2023/01/a00e7-jpeg.jfif_.jpg (Accessed 5.1.2023)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. https://www.wealdtowaves.co.uk/ (Accessed 5.1.2023)
2. https://christojeanneclaude.net/artworks/running-fence/ (Accessed 5.1.2023)
3. https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/visiting-woods/woods/ashdown-forest/#:~:text=The%20Forest%20is%20at%20the,extent%20of%20this%20rare%20habitat. (Accessed 5.1.2023)
4. Tree, I. (2019). Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm. UK: Picador
5. Thomson, K. (2007). No Nettles Required: The Reassuring Truth about Wildlife Gardening. UK: Eden Project Books