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Braving the elements Minerva, Durrell and the National Trust go 'bracken bashing'

28^th July 2010

More progress was made earlier this month in a major campaign to restore coastland habitats to revive the island’s declining or locally extinct farmland bird species.

This project run by Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust in partnership with the National Trust for Jersey and The States of Jersey Planning and Environment Department encompasses a number of actions which will be initiated to restore the coastland areas which form an important habitat for native wildlife.

A team from local trust company Minerva recently joined the National Trust for Jersey rangers for a session of ‘bracken bashing’. They braved high winds and frequent showers in order to remove bracken and gorse from land near the cliffs at Sorel Point in the north of the Island. As these areas have become less valuable for farming, they have been abandoned and overtaken by bracken, removing this will help to improve the habitat for invertebrates and farmland birds.

Commenting on the work, Minerva team member Ruari Allan said “We chose to support this project as the coastland is an important part of Jersey’s Heritage and we would like to see the people of Jersey and their families benefit from this in the future.”

An initial donation of £10,000 from Minerva helped to get this project up and running and commenting on the campaign Director Peter Nicolle explained “It was Minerva’s 30th anniversary celebrations in Jersey last year. As part of those celebrations the company has made some significant contributions to charitable activities in the key markets in which we operate and where many of our clients are based. Given Minerva’s local roots we identified the coastland regeneration project as being of significant local interest and environmental benefit. In addition to the financial commitment Minerva’s local staff will be involved to assist Durrell and other local agencies to undertake this project.”

As part of the coastland regeneration scheme Durrell has initiated an exciting breeding programme for the red-billed chough, Britain’s rarest crow, which has been missing from Jersey for over one hundred years. The species once thrived on Jersey’s coastline but as the farming practices which provided its ideal habitat changed, it declined and was extinct locally by the end of the nineteenth century.

Durrell’s Dr Glyn Young says that “removing large areas of bracken will eventually allow the land to return to former glory and see some of the birds that were once common here flourish again”.

 

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