Our work on the Blickling Estate

Ongoing management

Our ranger team work across the estate balancing the needs of conservation and access in a traditionally farmed environment. No two days in the life of a ranger at Blickling are the same – we might be looking after paths one day, building bridges the next and surveying butterflies after that. It’s the variety that makes Blickling a great place to explore – with something for everyone the estate boasts almost every habitat that you’d expect to find in lowland England.

Current projects

Restoring the River Bure in Norfolk

We're working on our biggest river restoration project to date, to revive five of the UK's most precious rivers, including the River Bure in Norfolk, which runs through the Blickling and Felbrigg estates.

Discover more about the project

Meadow Restoration

We’re excited to be working with Norfolk Rivers Trust on a project to restore wildflower meadows like Pond meadow, opposite the hall. The area used to be extensively grazed by dairy cattle but in recent years we’ve changed the way we do things; instead there are lower numbers of rare breed cattle which graze more sensitively allowing wildflowers to establish along the recently restored banks of the Silvergate Stream.

Veteran tree survey

The survey seeks to identify and safeguard the future of veteran trees. By knowing the extent and variety of the veteran trees in our care we can manage them to ensure there is no avoidable loss. In June 2022, we reached a milestone in our veteran tree survey journey as the team at Urban Forestry recorded tree number 1000 but we still have a significant area of the park to survey.

Tree planting on the Blickling Estate

As part of the Trust’s ambition to plant 20,000,000 trees, we’re planting three new woods at Blickling, building bridges between areas of existing woodland. The first of these will be the Jubilee belt, linking Bunker’s Hill plantation with a small woodland on the west edge of the estate called Marlpit plantation. In total we’ll be creating around 8Ha of woodland over the next few years.

Other ambitions include the restoration of over 100 hectares of native woodland. Non-native trees (which were planted as a timber crop) are being removed and allowing space for native trees to grow in their place. You’ll notice some areas of the woodland changing as we take out selected trees and allow light to reach the woodland floor; prompting a spring flourish of woodland wildflowers such as foxgloves to appear.

Thank you

With your ongoing support, we're able to continue our vital conservation work. Thank you for helping to protect these special places.