Country diary: Small-scale rewilding is already paying off

St Dominic, Tamar Valley: The thickening hedgebanks are sheltering birdlife, and runoff from our heavy rainfall will be slowedAway from pale reedbeds and leafless woodland beside the River Tamar, the ground below Viverdon Down is more open to gales and torrential downpours. Cattle are moved indoors off sodden pastures, and puddles lie on fields sown with winter corn.Here, an enclosure of land has been rewilded over the last two years, partly to help create new habitat. It will also help slow the runoff towards the boggiest, snipe-favoured corner - a source of a little tributary that joins the tidal river four miles away. New ponds have been created, whose water levels fluctuate depending on springs and rainfall. Thickening bushy hedgebanks grow ever higher, partly buffering the sound of traffic commuting to and from Plymouth, and sheltering creeping wrens that seek out insects among the blackthorn, hazel catkins, ivy, hawthorn and trailing brambles. Continue reading...