With benefits for wildlife, too
A group of villagers joined with volunteers from the South Downs National Park and Hampshire County Council on 4 July to remove dense vegetation along the long-distance Hangers Way path where it approaches the village along the Links.
The valley has been identified as a real opportunity for wildlife and a special “pollinator-friendly” cut took place, creating glades to help a range of sensitive creatures.
The expert volunteers did most of the hard work with their machine tools but villagers lent a hand to create some of the new glades and to rake away the cuttings.
Some delicious refreshments were kindly provided by local farmer Susan Shone who has been unable to farm the area as she would have liked in recent years.
Instead of a clearing a straight path with vegetation at one height, a number of glades were created with different heights of vegetation to help a whole host of pollinators and other creatures.
The County Council’s experts explained that having a variety of shorter, mid-length and taller grasses also gives wildflowers a chance to thrive whilst long grasses provide valuable feeding material, shelter, and nesting sites for wildlife too.
Additionally, when the wind blows up a straight path, it creates a wind tunnel effect which makes a harsher climate for insects and plants. In order to combat this, the edges of the path were scalloped to break up the wind tunnel and create sheltered pockets for insects and plants.
