The site is just under 2 acres of private land near Woudham (south of Rochester, Kent) near a number of SSIs & is within the North Downs AONB.
The land has 2 fields, a scrubby area joining them and woodland along the edge, The site also has a small vegetable garden and a small pond with palmate newts.
The area is largely chalk grassland, which is rare, so any addition to the stock is valuable. The summer of 2023 has shown that the upper field is full of wildflowers & the lower field fairly bare.
The main aim of the project is to restore the lower field, using the “wet hay” method i.e. cutting an area of rich grassland (in our case, the upper field) & transporting this hay to the lower field, where the hay will be spread over the degraded lower field to overcome the severe over grazing from the past.
This is a highly regarded and successful method of improving a degraded area and particularly useful in transporting (in our case, chalk) flowers and grasses from one area to another similar one.
There will be subsidiary aims operating alongside this:
1. Improving the ecological balance of the joining area, and opening the canopy
2. Cutting back the invasive species along the road & back fence area, and opening the canopy
3. Possible tree planting in the small already fertile area in the N of the lower field, for bird nesting
4. A wild hedge along the southern edge of the upper field.
The site is being run with the main rewilding principle guiding us; let nature heal itself where this is practical, So WRP is deliberately left for most of the time to look after itself.
There are 4 main events per year; 2 green hay cropping days in the warmer part of the year & a week or so later after each crop, moving the hay to the woodlad margins to keep soil fertility down.
April to October, I will run monthly weekend meetups on site for maintennance & other works; November to February 2 weekends/ days of work.
I & 1 other do the bulk of the work at present. but I am aware that, being retired & now getting age-related medical issues, that I need to get more people involved.
At present, we have some 12 people who volunteer their time.
I am looking to increase these numbers, remembering that people have busy lives & find it difficult to fit this sort of thing in, so the more volunteers, the more likely to have a few helpers each time.