Achieving our Living Landscape vision for a wildlife-rich, ecologically-connected and sustainably managed environment requires us to take ambitious action at a landscape-scale. Find out more about some of our approaches and key projects below.

 

Chet Valley B-Line 

Pollinators - whether bees, hoverflies, butterflies, beetles or other insects - are not only an important component of our biodiversity, but the 'service' that they provide is of huge global economic value. But like many of our invertebrate populations, they are in decline. However, grass-roots activity is endeavouring to reverse this loss.

NWT is proud to be supporting and providing technical input to the Chet Valley B-Line project. This local initiative, led by the Bergh Apton Conservation Trust, is endeavouring to support local communities and landowners, bringing them together in an effort to restore and create pollinator-friendly habitat throughout the valley of the River Chet in south Norfolk.

For more information on the project (which is currently funded by the Lottery Heritage Fund via the 'Water Mills & Marshes' project) see the project's webpage here.

Ecological Connectivity Mapping

NWT is currently working in partnership with NBIS (Norfolk Biological Information Service) to develop an ecological connectivity map / tool. Based on existing habitat data available for the whole county the plan is to generate a ‘heat map’ depicting the strength of habitat connectivity across the countryside. Whether utilised at a landscape scale or the level of individual parishes or farms, this should be a powerful tool that will help to target on the ground action to where it will achieve the greatest benefit for wildlife.

North Norfolk Living Landscape

The Trust is developing a flagship landscape-scale project centred on the North Norfolk Living Landscape – a multi-faceted project comprising elements that it is hoped will come together to deliver an ambitious whole. The priority will be the maintenance, restoration and creation of habitats, ranging from linking the ancient woodlands at Foxley, Swanton Novers and the Cromer Ridge, to restoring some of the myriad ponds scattered across the landscape. However importantly it will also explore how we sustain the management of these habitats into the long term and how we reconnect and engage more people in the natural environment.


 

Cut-Off Channel

Extending to 44 kilometres and located between the Brecks and the Fens of Norfolk and Suffolk, the Cut-Off Channel is a man-made waterway constructed in the 1950s and 1960s as a flood relief channel. Despite its recent and artificial origin, it has developed into a significant wildlife corridor – it supports approximately one third of the county’s priority chalk grassland, while areas of dense scrub support rarities including turtle dove and nightingale. NWT is working with partners and landowners to maintain and extend its ecological value.