Page 26 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #04

SALISBURY PLAIN

The SPTA balances the
needs of the military and
wildlife. Here, a skipper
feeds on field scabious.

crops but using the MoD’s neighbouring grassland IN ONE SURVEY
to hunt. By the end of last year five individuals had
been satellite-tagged by the Wiltshire Ornithological ECOLOGISTS CAUGHT
Society. “One male was called John, so inevitably he’s
become Monty John,” laughs Julie. NO FEWER THAN 158
“These days you only expect to find chalk grassland
this rich on the steepest bits of downland that have SPECIES OF BEETLE.
escaped the plough,” Julie continues. “That’s what
makes what we have here so special. The sheer scale obligations laid out in numerous official habitat and
and variety is unbelievable.” In one survey, ecologists species directives. “Sometimes it’s a struggle to cater
caught no fewer than 158 species of beetle. for everything,” admits Julie.
Scrub encroachment is one of many tricky issues.
HAVEN FOR HARRIERS Around 40 tenant farmers graze the SPTA, using
Though it can be pretty bleak and windswept, the temporary electric fencing to pen groups of 200 or
grassland is also important in winter, especially for hen so cattle into eight-acre areas, moved on rotation. “In
harriers. These beleaguered raptors nest in our uplands an ideal world, grazing alone would control scrub,”
but most move lower down after breeding. When ‘Nile’, says Landmarc’s Tom Theed. “But in practice, we also
a male satellite-tagged by the RSPB, turned up in 2016, have to employ contractors. There’s a brilliant piece of
he gifted ornithologists a unique opportunity to map military kit called the Armtrac, a tracked mine-clearance
where overwintering hen harriers forage and roost. vehicle. It happens to be perfect for gorse bashing.”
It’s not just about rarity, however. The military ranges Yet scrub is a valuable habitat. Long-eared owls,
provide an outpost for a number of once-common which are thought to be declining in southern England,
species rapidly losing ground in southern England. nest and roost in it. Two threatened butterflies use
Take the whinchat. Though it is hardly rare, the it too: the Duke of Burgundy favours a mixture of
only other significant southern population of this patchy scrub and sheltered grassy areas where
attractive summer migrant is now on Exmoor. its larval foodplant cowslip grows, while the
But it would be wrong to see the training brown hairstreak lays its eggs on blackthorn
area as a kind of Garden of Eden. Nor saplings. So removing all of the SPTA’s scrub
does it represent, as some commentators is not an option. “As with many things in
have suggested, an accidental form conservation, it’s about finding the right
of rewilding. This is a semi-natural, balance,” Julie says.
actively managed landscape, just as What about disturbance? Surely
it has always been. Ecologists at the combat vehicles end up squashing
MoD and Natural England, Landmarc birds’ eggs? Julie explains that exercises
staff and army top brass have to meet are graded in terms of weight and
the needs of both wildlife and the ground impact, and officers liaise with
military; the Government has to fulfil its her team to minimise the damage.
26 BBC Wildlife April 2018