In September 2023, Suffolk Wildlife Trust, the Stour Valley Farm Cluster, and the Wool Towns Farm Cluster submitted a joint bid to the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) for the second round of the Landscape Recovery pilot.

DEFRA have now approved the project - named Connecting Constable Country - and have awarded £750,000 to fund and support landscape-scale works for wildlife.

The pilot is one of 34 second-round projects and part of the Environmental Land Management schemes (ELM). The funding is for a 2-year period to develop the pilot in which we aim to enhance and connect wildlife habitats across farmlands in the project area - which extends through the Stour, Brett, and Box valleys.

The vision for the project is to create a wilder environment in which wildlife can move across the landscape by creating an expansive network of farmland enhanced for nature. This will include:

• habitat corridors encompassing woodland, scrub, grassland, and ponds
• wildlife-friendly farmland landscapes
• well-managed ancient and secondary woodlands
• natural heritage features.

One of the key focuses of this project it to recover, restore, and reconnect woodland sites across the valleys - habitats vital for flagship species such nightingale, turtle dove, great crested newt, and specialist flora. Most notably, we hope to reconnect rare populations of hazel dormouse which are currently restricted to only a small number of sites in south Suffolk & north Essex.

Another key focus of the project is to establish a programme of sustainable deer management. High numbers of roe, fallow and muntjac deer in the valleys are already impacting on woodland conditions, tree planting, and agroforestry projects - as well as impacting crops.

Finally, the project will support participating farms to further develop their sustainability and biodiversity by providing advice on low-impact farming methods that support nature recovery and can reduce carbon emissions – a journey which several of the cluster farmers have already begun. The combination of newly created and better managed habitats will help contribute to carbon sequestration and provide a range of other ecosystem services, including nutrient filtration, biodiversity uplift, erosion control, and the access and recreation of flood-load reduction. The project will look to develop the markets for these services, to enable project participants to partner with private ventures to support and deliver the objectives for nature.

John Pawsey, Lead Farmers for the Wool Towns Farm Cluster, said:

"This project will enable us to not only improve our ancient and secondary woodlands through effective deer management, it will also provide the appropriate and additional habitats that our declining species and improve the rich under-story missing in so many our Suffolk woodlands."

At Suffolk Wildlife Trust, our Farm Advice team have been working with the Stour Valley and Wool Towns Farmer Clusters for several years and we are delighted to take up the opportunity to work with both clusters to develop the successful bid. Project roles will be recruited early in 2024 to work with the Farmer Cluster groups over the 2-year development period.