Creating a Place of ‘Overwhelming Biodiversity’ from Scratch.
Last year Green Friend, Surya met our guest writer, Matt and his wife Rachel while working on their glamping project. Matt and Rachel took over a beautiful glamping site in Walterstone, Herefordshire in September 2021 and immediately began working on the land to create more biodiversity. They work out of doors most days, rain or shine, to make their creative vision to a reality.
The walnut tree in the first photograph had been lovingly looked after in a pot for many years by Surya. She gifted it to Matt and Rachel and it was planted near the entrance to eventually become the new “Goytree”.
We hope you are all inspired by this blog Matt kindly wrote for GreenFriends UK.
“Our vision is to create a place with ‘overwhelming biodiversity’ where people can connect with nature in a productive regenerative setting. This incredible 18 acre site has not be farmed commercially for over 20 years. For the past ten years it has been run as a glamping site with some unique structures built with incredible craftsmanship. The setting is sublime with views over the Skirid and it already has abundant biodiversity as it has been left in most part to rewild itself.
We want to build on these foundations and really focus on how people experience and connect with nature to move tourism on from being a passive fleeting visit, to embedding ways of getting people actively involved and participating in land based skills. We will focus on habitat creation, regenerative agriculture and wellbeing. Our mission is to help build peoples skills and strengthen networks through retreats and gatherings. The purpose of all this is to address the climate and ecological emergency. Our state of nature is in serious decline and the pressures of climate change are going to start to put even more pressure on in the coming years. We want to support people to be more proactive and resilient so they can effectively work with land and each other as we face significant challenges.
My background has been working for Avon Wildlife Trust for the past 10 years managing Grow Wilder (formerly Feed Bristol). We set up a wildflower nursery and living seed bank on the 6 acre site. I hope to replicate some of what we did here. Collecting wildflower seed each year and propagating it. We will start monitoring the flora and faun of the farm this year. A recommendation is to use the INaturalist app. Download free software to identify wildlife and go to the national data base to monitor the countries state of nature.
I have a career in community development, outdoors education and natural resource management. My wife Rachel specialises in climate change, supporting subsistence farmers in developing countries, with the Ethical Tea Partnership. We want to create a place that brings all of our passions together and create a space that demonstrates good practice, evidence and hopefully galvanises movement change on a broad scale. Big stuff but it starts with designing the land for nature, primarily with the backbone of planting trees.
The bases for our work on the land will be to improve a range of habitats, primarily establishing trees to create thick boundaries around all the edges, patches of trees in the middle (micro rewilding) and improve corridors across the site. Connecting continuous habitats is the best way to support natures recovery. In the long run we will look to work with neighbouring farmers to look for grants to work in partnership to connect bigger chunks of land. In addition we are exploring different tree crops for fire wood as the glamp site uses a lot in the hot tubs. Alder works well in these wet Hereford clay soils. It is a very fast growing hardwood but also hosts a large range of fungi and improves soil.
To help prepare the land we are clearing areas with our goats who are excellent at eating brambles. In time we will start a small micro dairy. Previously we ran Street Goat which had the aim of establishing new allotment gardens on derelict allotments through the creation of milking collectives. As the heard grew so did the areas that we could go and manage, setting up a series of milking collectives across Bristol. These now self-finance themselves. With the council and the Wildlife Trust to share more land to help to the work for them.
We have started implementing a big wetland design across the land managed water. Currently on a 6 acre field which hasn’t been cut for four years. More intense rain and droughty periods are becoming more common already and these will only intensify. The ponds will help capture and store water on the land and reduce the sever erosion happening in the gullies.The ponds will be framed by wildflowers and trees to protect banks. The outline of the system will create new small paddocks which can be used to manage livestock using mob grazing techniques. Watershed management will be a big focus for funding in the coming years and farmers will be rewarded for working in partnership and reducing water flow into river systems. Ponds are also the quickest way to have the biggest impact on increasing biodiversity on land.
Eventually we will set up a micro dairy and market garden. With all of this work we will build up a community around The Goytree, offering monthly work weekends and seasonal celebrations. We both have a passion for good food so looking forward to cooking for new friends and making some ripples as we all connect up.
Follow our journey on social media on Facebook or Instagram. Or check out our new website: www.thegoytree.com”
Written by Matt Cracknell
Thanks for reading!
Surya and GreenFriends
