Chesworth Farm receives Local Wildlife Site accolade

Horsham District Council has recently received the very exciting news that Chesworth Farm has been awarded Local Wildlife Site status for nature conservation in the Horsham District.

Chesworth Farm has officially been designated as a Local Wildlife Site, joining other council owned sites such as Leechpool & Owlbeech Woods, Monkmead Woods and Southwater Country Park.

Local Wildlife Sites are non-statutory sites that contain features of substantive nature conservation value. In Chesworth Farm’s case these are the extensive high quality hedgerows and wildflower meadows.

Local Wildlife Sites such as Chesworth Farm play a critical role in the conservation of the UK’s natural heritage. They each provide essential wildlife refuges in their own right as well as acting as stepping stones, corridors and buffer zones to link and protect other site networks and the open spaces of our towns and countryside.

The Parks & Countryside team at the Council, in partnership with the Friends of Chesworth Farm and Horsham Green Gym, have been putting in many hours of practical conservation management, as well as wildlife recording, which have all contributed to achieving conservation protection for the Farm.

Careful management of the hedgerows and grasslands, provision of sacrificial crops for farmland birds, regular dormouse monitoring, wildflower surveys and breeding bird surveys have all proved how important the Farm is for wildlife.