£200,000 needed to purchase rare floodplain habitat

14/09/2009 13:55:13 £200,000 needed to purchase rare floodplain habitat

September 2009. It could be the last summer for the spectacular and very special meadows at Leaches Farm, unless the Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) can raise the £200,000 it needs to secure it for wildlife forever. The deadline for raising the money is Friday 16 October - that's just weeks away.

Wildlife Landscape
It's a rare opportunity for BBOWT to buy a piece of precious floodplain meadow habitat that has come up for sale on the Upper River Ray - a land of big skies and atmospheric mists and a priority area for BBOWT's conservation work. Leaches Farm is an extremely important place as it will help BBOWT to link together wildlife-friendly sites in the area. This will allow wildlife to move about freely, helping it to adapt to climate change and improving its chances to thrive. People will also benefit, as well-maintained floodplains will provide protection from flood waters and a beautiful landscape for all to enjoy.

The land at Leaches Farm in Ludgershall, Buckinghamshire, is right next to BBOWT's existing nature reserve in the area, the Upper Ray Meadows on the Bucks/Oxon border.

Lapwing, curlew & snipe
Awash with wildflowers in the summer and home to flocks of lapwing in the winter, Leaches Farm is incredibly special. These meadows have been left un-ploughed for hundreds of years, forming an ancient landscape - a truly rare sight now, as development and agricultural advance have taken their toll. In fact, there are only 4,000 acres of these floodplain meadows left in the whole of the UK, and at Leaches Farm, BBOWT has the opportunity to protect 70 acres of this precious habitat.

Leaches Farm also provides a vital home for threatened wading birds, such as curlew, snipe and lapwing, which are hanging on by a thread in our three counties. The River Ray has been recognised as one of most important inland areas for wading birds in England.

Rare opportunity
Opportunities to buy land like this are exceedingly rare. If someone else purchases this land, the vital restoration work needed on the fragile, species-rich hay meadow is unlikely to happen, and these ancient meadows could be lost.

Giles Strother, Head of Reserves, at BBOWT says: "Leaches Farm is an extremely important purchase for BBOWT - and we've only got five weeks to raise the money we need, which is going to be a huge challenge. If we do raise the money, we could manage the land for the benefit of both wildlife and people. Restoration work is urgently needed on the species-rich meadow, as dense vegetation is beginning to smother the wildflowers. A late hay cut and grazing will help flowers such as ragged robin, great burnet, yellow rattle and pepper saxifrage to thrive.

"We'd also make the existing ponds suitable for wading birds and aquatic life like rare great crested newts. And we'd improve the hedgerows to provide nesting and food sources for birds such as whitethroat, reed bunting and yellowhammer, and to encourage rare brown and black hairstreak butterflies.

"Improving access and interpretation at Leaches Farm will also be a priority, so people can come and enjoy the wildlife on site."

£300,000 already raised.
Leaches Farm is now up for sale. The price of the land is £504,000 - a generous legacy and other funds are helping BBOWT to reach the target. Launched today, BBOWT's appeal is seeking to raise £200,000 by Friday 16 October to secure the site for wildlife, forever.