Friends of Westonbirt Arboretum

Downs restoration: strewing, scythes and sickles

Posted: August 6, 2013 at 13:52 pm

Sophie Nash is Project Officer for the Westonbirt Project. She organises the logistics of the project, working with architects and project managers for various elements to deliver the works.

We have recently done a trial run of how we will carry out our downs restoration, turning the existing car park into Grade I Registered downland. For this we will be using a green hay strewing method which uses our local seed bank source and then it is spread in areas where we want to regenerate our existing flora.

Volunteers doing a species surveyScythes and SicklesGathering the sward with grass rakes to take to the receiver siteThe receiver site in the new car park before strewingVolunteers strewing the receiver siteThe receiver site with all strewing complete!

We will be monitoring this area for growth and will be carrying out the same process next summer on the existing car park.


For more details about the Westonbirt Project