RXwildlife Projects

Ecclesbourne Meadow, part of the Hastings Country Park Nature Reserve, is under threat from a bramble and scrub invasion, which is set to strangle the wildflower-rich grassland.

To save the meadow Hastings Borough Council has joined forces with the Friends of Hastings Country Park Nature Reserve, Natural England and the High Weald Meadows Initiative.

Fund-raising by the Friends group and part funding by Natural England will help provide fencing around the meadow so animals can be brought in to graze the land and rid it naturally of brambles and scrub.
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Heathland restoration:
The Highland cattle have done a superb job in Warren Glen over summer reducing the dominance of bracken and producing pockets of acid grassland which over the years will grow bigger and eventually create a large bank of acid grassland with patches of heather.

The bracken and gorse seedlings have been cut in the braken scraped area to further stress the bracken and control the gorse seedlings that have been a big problem this summer. This cutting will have to continue for the next few years until the problem has diminshed enough for it to be controlled by grazing.

The colonisation of the bracken scraped area by ground nesting bees, wasps and beetles has been exceptional with large aggregations of ornate-tailed digger wasps (Cerceris rybyensis) and green tiger beetles. The reptile numbers also continue to grow with four species of reptile now using the area with especially good numbers of slow-worm and grass snake.

You can follow the results of the monitoring by viewing the reptile monitoring spreadsheet regularly.

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