Decoy FarmBNG offset site

Site description

Decoy Farm is a fruit farm extending to some 55 ha and lies around 2 km north of High Halstow, Rochester. Nestled between internationally important wetlands and a nationally important woodland, it sits within arguably one of the best areas for wildlife in Kent. The site is well placed to provide ecological connectivity and create new habitat for some of the 75,000+ waterfowl that visit the area each year.

To the North and West, it is ensconced by a ~20 km network of wetland habitats that form the southern border of the Thames Estuary. This area is subject to multiple statutory designations, owing to its internationally significant populations of wintering wildfowl, wetland plants, and invertebrates. These marshes perform important hydrological functions, including shoreline stablization, sediment trapping, flood water storage and desynchronization of flood peaks, and maintenance of water quality by removal of nutrients.

To help expand and buffer these habitats, the North and West parts of the site will become coastal floodplain grazing marsh with a network of new ditches and ponds. This habitat will blend into surrounding wetlands, providing more opportunities for wintering birds such as avocet, ringed and grey plover, dunlin, knot, black-tailed godwit, and redshank that frequent the Thames Estuary area.

Meanwhile, to the South of the site lies a large ancient broadleaved woodland, Northward Hill (aka High Halstow National Nature Reserve). The woodland is home to a diverse flora of over 200 plant species, and hosts a wide range of invertebrates and breeding birds. More notably, it contains the largest heronry in England - known to host over 200 breeding pairs of grey herons! Both the woodland and a network of floodplain grazing marshes that surround Decoy Farm fall within RSPB Northward Hill Nature Reserve.

The South of the site will establish a new broadleaved woodland, helping to expand the adjacent ancient woodland. A scrubby border at the woodland edge will provide nesting and feeding habitat for a wide range of birds that use dense scrub for shelter while feeding in the adjacent fields of open grassland.

In addition, the site presently contains 3.9 km of native hedgerow Priority Habitat. These hedges will be enhanced to be species-rich, and 1 km of additional species-rich hedgerows will be planted to create green corridors and provide more sites for birds to nest and feed.

Habitat Transitions