We have lost 90% of our traditional orchards from our landscapes in England and Wales since the 1950’s — and a part of our mission is to halt that decline through various means.
Our local orchards are nurturing so much biodiversity and hundreds of varieties of British-grown fruit never seen in supermarkets. Our cooperative mission is to support and increase local production and consumer demand. This will help us in our area to contribute to spreading a blanket of orchards across the land — enhancing biodiversity, capturing carbon and adding to the beauty of the British countryside.
Orchards are a unique form of habitat that bring together both woodland and grassland and as such contain a mosaic of diverse habitats supporting wildlife not found anywhere else. As good as each of these habitats are on their own, in an orchard setting they create a wildlife haven much greater than the sum of its parts.
For a great resource to help you appreciate and enhance your orchard click here
This mosaic of habitats is fantastic for a wide range of wildlife from local pollinators, birds, butterflies and bees to unusual fungi, lichens and mammals, including bats.
Young trees allow plenty of light to reach the grassland below. Older trees provide shelter and food and veteran standing trees with their decaying wood are perhaps the most valuable element of orchard habitat from a wildlife perspective providing some of the best habitats for fungi and invertebrates.
The grasslands in many traditional orchards have been undisturbed for decades, if not longer. This gives woodland and meadow flowers the best chance of thriving, away from the effects of nitrogen- and phosphorus-based fertilisers and enhances the diversity of mycorrhizal fungi in the soil.
As with grasslands, the soils of traditional orchards have often been left undisturbed. This means the soil structure remains largely intact and the complex underground ecosystem undisturbed. The result is reduced soil erosion and less damage to fungal hyphae networks which native orchards in particular rely upon for germination and growth.
Having a wide variety of species of fruit and nut trees and of different varieties within species, the blossom and fruiting season can spread over several months. This provides an abundance of food for all types of wildlife from insects to mammals. Pollen and nectar is supplied by the blossom on the trees and the grassland flowers. Many creatures will make use of fallen fruit and grazing opportunities within the orchard mosaic.
Orchards, hedgerows and woodlands act as corridors, helping many species to disperse, interact and avoid isolation which can lead to extinction.
Do you have an orchard, or would you like an orchard? If you would like support, or to learn how you may be able to enhance your orchard please feel free to use the form below to get in touch, we’re always delighted to hear from you.
We are always keen to expand our membership so that more orchards can be helped to be more economically viable and so that people with just a couple of fruit trees can benefit from them to the max. So do pass on our details to anyone you know with fruit trees who may not know about us.