Wild Ken Hill is an estate of 4,000 acres just south of Hunstanton. We went there with Hope Valley Birdwatchers on 14 May. Our guide, Les, described how the Buscall family are returning land to nature and farming sustainably in coastal west Norfolk. They use rewilding, regenerative farming, and traditional conservation practices side-by-side in a unique, innovative approach
Wild Ken Hill stretches from the sea through coastal scrub, freshwater marshes, heathland, wood pasture to nature-rich farmland. It is home to an incredible 2,500 species. Chris Packham and the BBC’s Springwatch team have been here a couple of times.
Regenerative farming
Les told us that the farm is roughly divided into three main areas. We began in the east, where regenerative farming has replaced traditional farming. They no longer plough and have sold all their heavy machinery. This means the soil isn’t continually compacted. They sow a herbal lay between the crops rows so that the soil is always covered. They no longer use chemical fertilizers or pesticides, and although yields are lower there are big savings in labour, fuel and other costs. To date, they haven’t had any pests. Nor do they irrigate, and in last year’s drought lost the crop and had to graze it off. The farm manager is an ecologist and uses a microscope to monitor soil biology on a regular basis.
Rewilding
We moved west to the rewilding area, where they are letting nature take over on 25% of the site, with a dozen ponies, 36 redpoll cattle and 6 pigs. They roam wild through the woodland and heath and are elusive. We didn’t see them. We did, however, see lots of hare and birdlife. In three years patches of gorse and brambles are appearing and giving shelter to a nurse crop of trees. The hawthorn hedges are left to grow are blurring the outlines of the fields.
A large area has been fenced for two pairs of beaver. They came three years ago and have already begun to transform the landscape, their dams raising the level of the network of dykes by a couple of feet and flooding the low lying surrounding. A key benefit is that this waterlogging is killing off the wild rhododendron.
Birch felled by beaver. They eat the foliage, small branches and bark, and chop the stem into 2 foot lengths to build their dams
Conservation
We didn’t have time to explore the conservation area near the coast. Here they have used earth-moving machinery to recontour the landscape and make a rich habitat for wading birds and other water fowl. The previous day we had been to the RSPB reserve at Titchwell, a very similar environment and saw Spoonbill, March Harrier, Little Gull, Avocets, Sandling and many other birds. Les told us they had Turtle Doves at Wild Ken Hill, which is quite special as they are on the brink of extinction in the UK. here they are actively managing the fresh and salt-water marshes to create a habitat for rare species
