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Orchards Live - saving orchards in North Devon and wider Exmoor |
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Orchard Survey The People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) has a grant from Natural England and DEFRA to survey and map the remaining traditional orchards in eight counties in England. The aim is to create an inventory of traditional orchards in England providing a valuable resource for use by conservationists and orchard groups. There is also a good possibility that traditional orchards will be included in Biodiversity Action Plans which will help to protect the orchards into the future. To date, we have been able to identify 11,092 traditional orchards in Kent, Devon, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and Cumbria. Little is known about the extent and condition of traditional orchard habitat in England and gaining local knowledge and making contacts with the local orchard owners is vital to the success of this project. For the purposes of this work we are defining an orchard as five or more fruit trees that are no more than 20m apart from crown edge to crown edge. I joined PTES as an orchard survey volunteer in November 2007 by attending a training class given by PTES entitled Preparation for an Orchard Survey. Since then I have been given an OS map of the area around Okehampton identifying 19 orchards to be surveyed from the ground. I have identified one orchard in Sampford Courtenay that may have noble chafer beetles living there, which will be a first for Devon. This is an exciting project where you will be given an opportunity to meet and talk with fellow orchard owners, and to help PTES create an inventory of orchards in England. Since I joined with PTES in November, they have been seeking additional funding to extend the survey to every county in England! I encourage you to visit the PTES website www.ptes.org where you can find out all about the survey, and you can download the necessary information to survey the orchards that you are associated with. If you require any additional information from me, I can be contacted at ctdion1@btinternet.com, or 01837 658802. Please help, Tony Dion Resources: Finding your OS Grid Reference Copyright © 2008 Dartington North Devon Trust |