Stroud Landscape Project

Conservation Grazing

You can see our herd of Belted Galloway cattle happily munching across the project landscape. This isn’t just happening on National Trust land, it’s also taking place on important wildlife sites owned privately or managed by other organisations such as Natural England, Butterfly Conservation and Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust. 

This traditional way of managing grasslands, without the use of harmful pesticides, creates a range of heights in the grass sward increasing the diversity of wildflowers and insects. The organic waste (cowpats) from the grazing cattle, also helps put nutrients back into the soil improving soil health, structure, and ultimately soil resilience across the landscape. 

Creating wildlife corridors

Wildlife corridors, like hedgerows and wildflower strips around field margins join habitats together and help wildlife move between them. For example, bats find their way using woodland edges, trees and hedgerows or ‘corridors’ to forage for food. 

The project has been restoring, creating, and connecting habitats together between Woodchester Park and Minchinhampton and Rodborough Commons to help greater horseshoe bats move between their summer roost site in Woodchester Mansion and winter sites located in mines on the edge of the commons. 

Restoring rare habitats and supporting threatened species

Innovative partnerships forged by the project to create and restore grasslands in the Stroud valleys led to the largest ever UK reintroduction of the globally endangered Large Blue butterfly on Rodborough Common in 2020.   
 
As the meadows and grasslands develop, we are seeing increasing numbers of insects. Great green bush crickets which are locally common but nationally uncommon, meadow grasshoppers, and rare species of butterfly such as the Duke of Burgundy and Marsh Fritillary are beginning to appear on sites where they were found historically, but have been absent for many decades. Restoring their habitats have provided them with their preferred food plants and sward requirements. 

Wildflower seed harvesting and sowing

We’re restoring and creating more areas of grassland by sowing wildflower and native grass seeds. We collect some of this seed from a network of donor sites on and off our land. 

Over the next few years, we’ll be collecting more seed from local meadows to sow on recipient sites belonging to the National Trust and local landowners. 

In 2026, we collected over 600kg of wildflower seed and distributed it to partners across the Cotswolds to sow. A selection of seed has been gifted to residents in Woodchester Village as a pilot project to help create connected urban spaces in local communities. 

In total we’ve collected 3,000kg of wildflower seed since 2019. As the meadows we have previously seeded mature further each year, becoming more diverse and full of wildflowers, we are able to add these into our annual harvesting regime. More donor sites on rotation mean we are able to harvest more seed each summer, and provide additional partners with seed for restoring new areas of grassland.

Beyond our boundaries

With a dedicated, highly knowledgeable, and experienced team including a Delivery Manager, Conservation Grazing Team, and dedicated Ranger team, we’re able to offer landowners in the project area a variety of different services.  

Services include free UKHAB habitat surveys and written reports, land management prescriptions, habitat monitoring, site preparation prior to any restoration interventions, conservation, on-going support and exclusive learning and sharing events. If you’re a landowner and would like to know more please email Cotswolds@nationaltrust.org.uk 

Urban green stepping stones

We’re not just working with landowners, we’re also working with communities in the towns and urban spaces in the Stroud District to create green stepping-stones that link and connect our work in the landscape, forming vital nature corridors through the urban centre. We also make small bags of wildflower seed available for purchase for anyone who wants to take part in the scheme in their own gardens, land or green spaces. 

Our successes so far

We’ve achieved a lot in the past few years. Here are just some of our highlights; 

• 78 landowner collaborations 

• 3000kg of wildflower seed harvested since 2019.   

• 440ha sown with wildflower seed (equivalent to 616 football pitches!) 

• 492ha of habitat undergoing active restoration between 2022 and 2026 

• 367ha under active restoration through seeding.  

• 32 sites totalling 560ha being grazed by our conservation grazing herd 

• CPRE Gloucestershire Award for our conservation grazing operation 

Thank you

Our work is made possible thanks to our brilliant volunteers, supportive landowners and delivery partners and the generosity of donors and funders. Special mentions go to Cotswolds National Landscape, Farming in Protected Landscapes, Stroud Valleys Project, Wild Stroud, National Highways, Butterfly Conservation, Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, Natural England, Stroud District Council and Severn Trent Water for supporting our work.   

Find out more

Please get in touch if you’re interested in getting involved and finding out more about the Stroud Landscape Project.

For more information, email the Stroud Landscape Project team at cotswolds@nationaltrust.org.uk.