| Culm Grassland Walk
A guided walk introducing Devon's unique culm grasslands will be
run by the Northern Devon Coast and Countryside Service on Sunday
(18th June) at Brownsham near Clovelly.
The walk will be led by Rob Wolton from English Nature, who will
be identifying the many unusual plants and insects associated with
this rare habitat. During the afternoon there will also be the chance
to look at the importance of suitable management of the culm lands.
The wet acidic traditional grassland that occurs over the culm
measures soil only exists in an area of North Devon.
"It is home to some of Europe's most beautiful and threatened
species including the marsh fritillary butterfly (Euphydryas aurinia),
which has suffered a dramatic 66 per cent decline in England during
the 10 years between 1990 and 2000," says Tom Hynes, countryside
officer for the Coast and Countryside Service.
Mr Hynes told me the amount of culm grassland has reduced enormously
in the recent past: "Culm fields are wet, acidic and not very
productive for agriculture," he said, "and therefore many
have been ploughed up, reseeded and improved to suit the needs of
modern agriculture. Another threat to culm is lack of management,
causing the fields to scrub over and lose their grassland interest.
Nowadays, fortunately, there are very good grants available to manage
culm grasslands traditionally, for the benefit of wildlife."
The walk will be around culm fields owned by the National Trust
at Brownsham.
The walk starts at 2.00 pm from Brownsham car park. The event
is free but please book a place in advance by phoning Tom Hynes,
Coast and Countryside Service on 01237 423655.
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