Brack’in business

This year’s dry and balmy summer has quickly been replaced by the damp cool days and cold dark nights of Autumn. The trees have put on their final show in preparation for winter dormancy and the lush green annual scrub vegetation has given up the battle and returned to the earth.

Before we get in to the update, please check out a recent drone video of the site below. More videos and website content to come…

An overview of the 25 acre site using a drone camera.
Video quality can be changed in settings.

Following a flurry of activity in the summer months, the last couple of months have been relatively quiet at Renscault Brooghs. From late July the site was swallowed-up by dense bracken, some 2 metres tall in places! Because of this, access became quite difficult and has brought us to the understanding that 100% rewilding is probably not the best management plan for the site – if we simple let the bracken have its way then we risk losing the already strained wildflower habitats and the site will quickly (in ecological terms) turn to closed canopy woodland. Therefore, as well as actively managing the ash trees through ash dieback disease, we will also aim to manage areas of bracken, bramble and gorse to maintain suitable wildflower growing conditions. “Manage the best. Rewild the rest”.

An example of the bracken growth in late August.

As we’ve said in previous posts, the plan is to simply watch the site for a full cycle before making any great plans. Therefore, we will continue to just watch and wait, and will keep updating as and when we have something to share. Here are a couple of pictures from the last couple of months.

If you like what we are doing and want to share your ideas and opinions, please feel free to get in touch via the Contact page.