Our centre at Nettlecombe Court in Somerset is home to a 50-year standing succession project, inviting comparison of the ecology, flora and fauna of grazed and ungrazed grassland. Lying in a secluded valley at the eastern edge of Exmoor National Park, the former management history of the surrounding parkland is well documented. From the 18th century until the 1960s, it had been a deer park – established by drastic thinning of former woodland rather than by planting trees in open grassland.
A land management plan is created
In 1972, John Crothers (then Centre Manager), drew up a management plan whereby a 5-acre area was annexed and left ungrazed with the primary objective of creating a variety of habitats which could be studied – a ‘rewilding’ project now ripe for research. https://sanhs.org/crothersb/
The estate has also been a site of a recent hydrological monitoring programme by the Environment Agency and the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust. Its rivers, stream and ponds have all had gauging equipment on them for the last two years, and woody dams were installed in the upper course and offer great potential for study of natural flood management.
View the changes to the bracken field over the years
Masters and PhD research project opportunities
Field Studies Council would be delighted to hear from universities who have Land Management or Conservation /Ecology/Biology Masters and PhD students looking for research projects.
Please contact Jo from the Business Development team or Dan House, Nettlecombe Centre Manager, for more information.