Exmoor Coast project

You may have seen the posts being put in up near the Valley of Rocks – this is the start of Lynton’s very own Community Orchard! This project has been organised by members of the local community looking to do more for both nature and people with funding from Defra through Lyn Climate Action. We were able to lend our tractor and post banger (and rangers Mathieu and Andrew) to put in the posts over a couple of days, and after a couple of additional days with Lynton Community Orchard Group and National Trust volunteers teaming up, we have now built all 35 tree cage frames, completed 25 cages, and planted 21 very healthy heritage apple trees – grafted and grown by the orchard team themselves! Only 14 trees and 10 cages remain to finish the orchard, which is amazing!

The orchard site has also been sown with yellow rattle (a wildflower that suppresses grass growth) so over time it will create a green space for people to enjoy and, with future plans to install bat boxes nearby, will also form a corridor of habitat to help link the existing nature reserve in Lynton with the wider environment. A big congratulations to Kate, Richard, Bob and the rest of the community orchard group for organising and leading this exciting project, and to all the staff, volunteers and members of the local community who came to get stuck in.

We are lucky enough to be able to work with the Plymouth Natural Grid, a partnership project between Plymouth City Council and National Trust that has been working to enhance biodiversity for wildlife and people, engage local communities and upskill young people in greenspaces across the city since 2021. It works with young people at risk of long-term unemployment and trains them as apprentice rangers, and some of these young people joined us up at Kipscombe for several days of volunteering, nature immersion and team bonding. They stayed at the Exmoor Bunkhouse and came out with the West Exmoor volunteers soil sampling, as well as a nature walk and a cook-up with the Kipscombe rangers. This is something we’ve done for the last few years and want to continue to inspire future Natural Grid apprentices for years to come. Ranger Jamie Henderson said, “Witnessing the sense of awe from the apprentices highlighted multiple benefits for the trip in my eyes. To feel part of something bigger / to connect with a similar project with a team with similar values left us all inspired – ready to take the challenge to our urban setting.”

The Combe Martin Food Pantry has just opened its brand-new outdoor shelter, meaning that food donations will be available to access 24 hours a day, whatever the weather. Volunteering & Community Officer Amy U’Ren saw the call go out on social media and we volunteered to do our bit – rangers John and Finn sourced wood and built the shelter over the summer. Combe Martin’s Food Pantry does really important work in the village, and when we saw they needed an outdoor shelter we knew we could help, using the rangers’ woodwork skills to build a shelter that would really last. This will help to support those who need it most in the local community for a long time. This was helped to make possible by the People’s Postcode Lottery.

During inter-faith week we worked in partnership with Somerset Community Council to welcome families from across Somerset to Exmoor for the first time for a community tree planting day. We planted trees, chatted, laughed and enjoyed the great outdoors together. The partnership helped towards our tree planting goal of 165,000 trees and our mission to enable access to the Exmoor countryside for more people. Planting trees is significant for many different religions and offered the chance for community cohesion in the great outdoors.  

The summer of 2022 marked the first wild camp on West Exmoor. A week-long placement programme where young people from Plymouth completed a work exchange with the West Exmoor ranger team. The ‘Kickstarters’ got involved in a range of practical conservation tasks along the Exmoor coast. They left equipped with new skills and opportunities to boost their employability and experience working as a ranger.  

Work begins to reconnect the two nationally important woodlands of Horner and Hawcombe at Doverhay above Porlock. 6,000 trees were planted including, hawthorn, crab apple, birch, hazel and sweet chestnut. These trees will create a better habitat for bats, dormice and birds.