Laurel Tree Fruit FarmBNG offset site

Site description

Laurel Tree Fruit Farm is located within the High Weald National Landscape (formerly Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), around 1.8 km northeast of Crowborough. It is embedded within an extensive network of ancient woodlands. Ancient woodlands have been continuously wooded since at least 1600, and often contain a diverse array of species, many of which only thrive in well established woodland habitats. Only 430 m to the west of the site lies Bream Woods SSSI, an ancient carr woodland that supports a rich flora including several locally rare ferns and mosses, reminiscent of the Atlantic rainforests found along the western shores of the UK.

The site is currently managed as an intensive orchard, which uses modern farming methods to maximise productivity. By converting to traditional orchard management, the site will continue to provide home-grown fresh fruit while also creating a Priority Habitat that is incredibly valuable for a range of wildlife. Traditional orchards use little to know pesticides, herbicides, and fertilisers, which allows a rich ground flora to develop, with potential to become a wildflower-rich lowland meadow humming with bees. Meanwhile, fruit and nut trees are allowed to become fully mature, and any dead wood is not removed, but instead left for nature to do its work, creating habitat for a wide range of invertebrates and fungi. New species-rich native hedgerows will be created throughout the orchards, providing ideal feeding and nesting sites for bird life.

In addition, new woodland will be created to help connect existing fragmented ancient woodland patches within and adjacent to the site, and grasslands with scattered ponds will no doubt attract swallows, swifts, and house martins which swoop acrobatically over fields to catch insects in mid-air during the summer months.

Habitat Transitions