Church Field Nature Recovery Project
Will you help us make a place where nature has priority?
What is the Church Field Project?
Church Field is 4.5 acres of limestone grassland and woodland in Slad, Gloucestershire, running down to the Slad Brook. It belongs to Holy Trinity Church, Slad and we rent the field from them. We hope to create a longer term lease soon.
The Church Field Nature Recovery Project is one small step we can take here in Slad to create a bit more space for nature. Our aim is to secure the future of the field as a nature reserve. It is already a special place – a mosaic of different habitats, home to a wide range of wildflowers and other flora and fauna. With the right management, this can be both a fantastic home for wildlife and also somewhere for local people to discover nature.
What makes Church Field special?
Church Field is an area of limestone grassland and woodland that is a few acres big but its importance for biodiversity, connectivity with other local habitats and community access to nature far exceeds its size. It has a bit of everything; two streams, woodland, and wildflower rich grassland.
“On my recent visits to Church Field I have been delighted with the wide range of flora already present; many indicator species are found in good numbers, and through initiating a conservation grazing regime, it will flourish…… Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust are delighted to support the nature reserve project at Church Field.” Alan Sumnall, formerly the local land manager for GWT.
Will you become a Friend to the nature reserve?
With your help we can secure the future of the nature reserve for the long term. We need to raise enough money annually to pay the rent, insurance and meet any maintenance costs.
What have we achieved so far?
In the two years since we introduced a grazing approach designed to support the field as flower-rich grassland, the range and number of flowers has already increased, they have spread further into the field and butterflies and other insects have benefited as a result. We were particularly pleased to see orchids returning in numbers, especially Bee Orchids. Our survey results show that things are improving, year on year.