The nature-friendly future project at Wembury

January 2025

Final winter of tree planting

The winter of 2024/25 marks the final few months of tree planting. Initially, the aim was to plant over 90,000 trees but that target has since grown to over 104,000. These trees will form woodland, hedgerows and wood pasture to help create greater connectivity across the farm. So far, we have had help from 735 local school children and volunteers have gifted us over 4,700 hours of their time to help plant trees. If you’d like to help with tree planting this winter, please keep an eye on our events page.

Winter 2024/5

New paths

This winter the team will be creating more permissive footpaths through the newly planted areas to provide additional walks for locals to explore which will link to existing paths from the village and the South West Coast Path. Subject to planning, we are also hoping to create a multi-user path that will link to existing paths from the village. The multi-user path can be used by walkers, cyclists and horse riders which offers safe off-road routes. With views across the Yealm and up to Dartmoor, we hope the new route will be enjoyed time after time as people watch the newly planted trees grow up to form established areas of wood pasture, hedgerows and woodland.

December 2024

Improving water quality

The ranger team have been working on creating new ponds and ‘leaky dams’ to help prevent agricultural run-off into the River Yealm. Leaky dams mimic natural obstructions caused by trees and branches falling across water courses and slows the water down. The obstructions also help to clean the water by catching sediment as it travels across the farm.   

August 2024

50 meters of dry-stone walling completed

As the rangers will tell you, dry-stone walling is back breaking work. Thanks to help from the Devon Rural Skills Trust, volunteers and other ranger teams from across the Trust, we’ve completed 50 meters so far with a lot more left to do.

March 2024

Cattle grazing on the South West Coast Path

From March 2024, cattle have started grazing on the coast path. A small number of Highland cattle are grazing the land directly below the farm where the fence was introduced on the cliff edge earlier in the year. By grazing and trampling the scrub, the cattle will help effectively manage the scrub by creating a diverse scrub structure and a range of habitats for reptiles, invertebrates, small mammals and birds.  The team are hoping to train the cattle to use No Fence collars which will hopefully allow the fence to be removed.

Signage will be in place when the cattle are in the compartment, and we ask that walkers follow the guidance provided. 

September 2023

Dry stone walling

A dry stone waller from the Devon Rural Skills Trust has started to repair the existing walls.  This is a time consuming process as the different gaps total over 100 meters and some of the walls consist of a double structure.  If you fancy having a go, there will be sessions where the public can join in so please keep an eye on the events page. 

February 2023

Tree planting begins

This year alone, we will be planting over 33,000 trees at Wembury Barton Farm which will mark the start of our woodland creation work. The new woodland will be part of the Plymouth and South Devon Community Forest. Planting is taking place in the fields above Wembury Woods where we will be planting a mix of native species including sessile oak, fruit trees and hazel. To protect the young trees and give them the best start in life, we have installed deer fencing and have used non-plastic tree guards to protect from rabbits. We have also used equipment such as an enviro-mounder which strips away some of the topsoil, including grass and weeds, to reduce the fight for nutrients. Each tree planted will be surrounded by a large amount of mulch as recent studies have shown this to be an effective way of keeping moisture around the roots, even during a long dry summer. 

September 2022

Sowing of grass and herbal leys

This autumn lots of the fields across the farm will be sown with grass and herbal leys. Herbal leys are a mixture of grasses, legumes and herbs which are nutritionally varied, higher in protein and often have medicinal properties. The variety of root systems will help provide protection from drought and flooding, build soil fertility, capture carbon, and attract pollinating insects and other wildlife.

Summer 2022

Finding out more from our visitors

We have been interviewing visitors to the beach and Wembury Point to help us understand how we can make these spaces more accessible and better enable people to easily explore their heritage and connect with nature.

August 2022

Farming continues at Wembury Barton

The permanent pasture at the farm has been shut up all summer so it can be cut for hay, allowing the grasses and wildflowers to go to seed. As well as being a good harvest for the farmer, this maximises the pollen and seeds available for birds, bees and butterflies and creates space for ground nesting birds, small mammals and invertebrates to breed. The combine has also been out bringing in the barley, which will be used as fodder for cattle and sold for making into beer. The barley stubble will be left over winter as a food source for ground nesting birds.

July 2022

Farming with nature

This year, alongside the traditional arable crop of spring barley, the farmer left large margins as space for nature and arable plants to germinate. In addition a three metre margin was sowed on one side of every field with flowers that will provide a rich nectar source in the summer and seeds for farmland birds in the winter.

June 2022

Surveys completed

Specialists have now completed detailed surveys across the farm recording numbers of winter birds, breeding birds, bats, invertebrates and butterflies. Habitat surveys and arable plant surveys have also been completed creating a comprehensive catalogue of the plantlife and wildlife that call this place home.

March 2022

Testing the soils on the farm

Rangers and volunteers were out taking soil samples of all the fields at Wembury Barton farm. The soil is sent to laboratories and is then analysed for mineral, ph levels, etc. The lab’s findings are then used to help plan what gets planted where.

February 2022

Clearing the scrub and making more space for nature

Reducing the amount of scrub along the cliff tops should help small insects like butterflies thrive. Pockets of thick brambles and gorse can provide important shelter but too much can be detrimental. This is good news for walkers too, as it means wider footpaths and more of those amazing ocean views. 

January 2022

Uncovering the ponds on the farm

The ranger volunteers were out with strimmers to cut down vegetation around two ponds on the farm. The work they have done has opened up the ponds and we hope to see more migratory birds visiting, as well as more pond life thriving here. We hope to see dragonflies and frogs here later in the year. 

December 2021

Repairing historic stone walls

One of the first tasks for the ranger volunteers was to uncover the stone walls around the farm. These solid, cleverly designed boundaries are a common feature of the landscape in Wembury. An important part of our farming heritage, they mark the boundaries of the farm and more importantly, keep grazing cattle safe. 

November 2021

Watching and learning

We will be taking a year to rest the land, test, monitor and record what we already have here before embarking on bigger landscape changes. It will be exciting to see what plants start to emerge once the soil warms up and we see more sunshine. There will be a small amount of farming activity; some grazing animals and sewing spring barley, both great for wildlife. Where we plant, we will be leaving wide field margins for wildflowers to flourish and we won't be using any harmful insecticides.