The Stepping Stones Project

The Stepping Stones Project was initiated in 2012 by Cranborne Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) that surrounds Chilmark, North Wessex Downs AONB and Wiltshire Wildlife Trust working together. We wanted to deliver some of the landscape scale benefits envisaged in a programme of nature restoration called ‘Big Chalk’. An application was made to Natural England, the government’s nature conservation body, for £105,658.41 over three years.

The aims of the project were:

•  To connect areas of high quality chalk grassland habitat around Salisbury Plain by creating ‘stepping stones’ between them, allowing animals like butterflies and beetles to successfully colonise new areas.
• To enhance areas adjacent to high quality sites: buffering valuable habitat so that populations of chalk grassland insects and plants can grow.
• To include and involve a large number of local volunteers in growing and planting plug plants to enhance species-poor areas.

We carried out an innovative piece of mapping that showed us where we should prioritise our efforts. We worked with twenty-eight farmers on the Pewsey Downs and West Wiltshire Downs, creating or improving 344 hectares of chalk grassland. The project levered in about £60,000 of cash and in-kind support. Voluntary participants included school children from Pewsey Primary and the WildlifeTrust’s Wellbeing Group.

See the Stepping Stones Priority Area Map PDF.

Recently, the Cranborne Chase AONB has provided £1,500 to the Chilmark Horticultural Society to carry on this work in South Wiltshire. With the help of chalk grassland expert Catherine Hosie and lots of voluntary help, we will use the polytunnel at Manora (thanks to the generosity of Patrick and Jane Middleton) to produce a large number of chalk grassland plants that can be planted out in the spring of 2016.

You can easily get involved in sowing seeds, potting on plants and looking after them. In particular, we need people to help water the plants over the summer. Can you help us? Also, we need some big watering cans with rose sprinklers and as many 4” and 3” plastic plants pots as we can get our hands on. Can you donate or lend them to us?

The first volunteer days for sowing seeds will be Sunday 29th March and Sunday 12th April. We will meet at the Polytunnel, at 10 am and we will be finished at about 12.00 pm, but you do not have to stay for the whole 2 hours. For more details, contact:

David Blake
davidblake@cranbornechase.org.uk
Tel: 01725 517417