Species return in £500,000 project at farm

Sixty acres of farm fields bought by a wildlife trust three years ago have been turned into one of Worcestershire's premier sites for nature.

A £500,000 project to improve the environment at Green Farm near Worcester has seen the return of many species of plants, animals and birds, with conservation work being funded by the National Lottery and Severn Waste Services.

Since the site next to Monkwood was taken over three years ago, 5,000 trees have been planted and wild flowers burgeoned during the summer.

Worcestershire Wildlife Trust said it was proof nature could thrive given the right conditions.

Eight fields are no longer cultivated after the trust bought them.

Speaking in one, where an orchard has been planted and wild grasses have been allowed to grow, project manager Dominique Cragg said "what we've tried to do... is to turn the clock back to what it was about 100 years ago".

She added "to do that we really wanted to plant some fruit trees".

"Fruit trees like apples and pears, plums, bring many different benefits to wildlife, from spring blossom to autumn fruits.

"Also the structure of those trees as they grow into old age can be fantastic for things like roosting bats and nesting birds."

Dominique Cragg hopes to attract more species to the area

The recorded bird population has doubled and the field vole population has increased.

Ms Cragg, from the trust, said it was "not rocket science".

"If you bring in as many different places to live and breed and feed as possible, you're just going to get more species and that's what we're after."

Worcestershire Wildlife Trust bought eight fields

An increase in dormice has been indicated through footprint tunnels, placed in hedgerows as part of the scheme.

Project officer Julie Grainger said: "The footprints that are in the tunnels could be wood mice or dormice.

"We need to analyse the little patterns that are on there and see if we can work out which ones they are."

More than 200m of new hedgerow has been planted - a highway for all sorts of wildlife to travel along.

Ms Cragg said: "We're very keen to put it back into the landscape, because it connects some of our existing hedges over to Monkwood.

"[It] will act as a sort of corridor, wildlife corridor, through the landscape for small mammals like dormice, but also navigating bats and all sorts of things."