{"id":2150,"date":"2025-08-21T21:10:30","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T21:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wisehooves.co.uk\/?p=2150"},"modified":"2025-08-21T21:15:42","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T21:15:42","slug":"a-wilderness-is-not-just-a-place-you-abandon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wisehooves.co.uk\/index.php\/2025\/08\/21\/a-wilderness-is-not-just-a-place-you-abandon\/","title":{"rendered":"A wilderness is not just a place you abandon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You might think a wilderness is just a wild, untouched space where you let nature do its thing. However, on our small island, so many wild spaces have been shaped in some way by centuries of human activity, both good and bad. The woods and fields at WiseWoods were left untouched for decades, and it didn\u2019t do them any favours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biodiversity sometimes needs help<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If you leave land to its own devices, without managing what grows, you might be lucky and find that an incredible variety of plants will grow and wildlife thrive. In an area like Strines, however, there is more likely to be a \u2018survival of the fittest\u2019 scenario. Dominant and invasive plants will take over and crowd out smaller and less prolific species. This is bad news for our rarer native plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At WiseWoods, the clearest illustration of this threat to biodiversity is the overwhelming invasion of Himalayan balsam. It has colonised large sections of the riverbank and invaded the woods and grazing. It grows fast and tall and doesn\u2019t give other plants a chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One of the areas of fully grown Himalayan balsam<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not just its size and spread that ensures Himalayan balsam outcompetes native plants. The balsam offers a mass of sweet flowers that bees love so much they often stop pollinating native flowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Himalayan balsam flower<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The years of neglect allowed other plants to take over, too. You saw in a previous blog<\/a> how impenetrably dense brambles covered the top grazing field. Hundreds of self-seeded willow and birch trees are also dotted throughout the field. In the bramble-swamped areas, there was very little chance for grass and wildflower species to grow because they hardly saw any sunlight! While dense brambles might offer a safe home for small creatures, others, such as the deer who used to regularly visit the field and entertain diners at the neighbouring pub, struggled to make paths through the vicious thorns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Improving biodiversity<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Despite only recently clearing areas of balsam, we are already seeing an increase in the coverage of native plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The slideshow below lists the wildflowers we\u2019ve photographed at WiseWoods since April. (If I’ve mis-identified any, let me know!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n