Gloucestershire Orchard Group

Conserves, promotes and celebrates traditional orchards in Gloucestershire

Wildlife in Orchards

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?

Mistletoe

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 twelve sites in Gloucestershire - in the Forest of Dean and Severn Vale - and seems to be particularly associated with decaying plum trees. For a free survey of likely sites, contact Rosie Cliffe of the Wildlife Trust on 01452 383333. Click here for further details on the Noble Chafer.

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

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

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

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 http://www.glosnats.org.uk/records/records.php

Alternatively, a message can be left on the answerphone of Ian Carle, manager of the
Gloucestershire Environmental Data Unit (GEDU).  Phone him on 01453 822761, pressing 2
then 1 once you are through to the automatic switchboard.  He will put you in touch with
the relevant recorder.

Website: www.glosnats.org.uk

PEOPLES 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 www.ptes.org (Anita Burrough) or the Gloucestershire Orchard Group (Ann Smith) smithcovell@btinternet.com   01452 855677.  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, visit this link, which is 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 HAVE NATIONAL/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.