Biodiversity

All orchards benefit wildlife in some way, either as a food source or as a home, or both. However, some types of orchard are much better at doing this than others. At the bottom of the biodiversity league are modern densely planted single variety orchards where the fruit trees are short lived, are on dwarf rootstocks, and are intensively managed using lots of chemical inputs. Whilst at the top of the biodiversity league are the much more lightly managed traditional types of orchard, where widely spaced and longer lived trees on half standard or standard rootstocks grow in unimproved grassland and produce a range of fruit types and varieties.

In 2007 this important difference was formally recognized when traditional orchards were designated a Priority UK Biodiversity Habitat by the UK Government.

Old traditional orchards are biodiversity-rich environments because their fruit trees share many of the same physical characteristics as usually much older native woodland trees. For example, a fruit tree that is fifty years old will probably have already developed fissured bark, rots holes from pruning wounds and some dead wood, all of which create ideal food sources and habitats for other wildlife to use, such as mosses and lichens, fungi, and numerous species of mammals, insects and birds.

Under EU Law it is an offence to damage or destroy the breeding or resting sites of several rare and endangered animals which inhabit these types of orchard, including bats, several species of beetle, some bird species and great crested newts. They may also contain rare fruits, possibly locally raised rarities, so this also makes them scientifically valuable.

Recent surveys undertaken by our Project in Essex, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire have shown that traditional orchards are gradually disappearing from the landscape due to redevelopment for housing and industry, replacement with arable crops and by abandonment and neglect.

Owners of Traditional orchards need to be aware of their responsibilities as guardians of these valuable habitats, and how best to manage them for fruit production and biodiversity. Helpful, free advisory management notes are available from Natural England - visit our Useful Links page for more details.  We offer practical training in pruning old fruit trees - visit our Events page to view our Workshops and Day Schools programme.

We also encourage the planting of new traditional orchards across the region, so future generations of wildlife and people can continue to benefit from this complex natural habitat.