Herefordshire BNG at Hampton Wafre Farm

Hampton Wafre is a working farm in North Herefordshire, where Adam and Jane Lewis, with their daughters Caroline and Emily, are fitting a 30-year biodiversity net gain scheme around the farming they already do. Adam explains how contour ploughing and margins along the watercourses stopped sediment reaching the streams, and how soil organic matter has climbed from around 1.8% to 3.8%, enough to change the colour of the soil. More organic matter also makes a perfect habitat for slugs, and the family has the walks to prove it. Caroline and Emily explain why the scheme sounded like a no-brainer: no land comes out of production, and it lets the family keep farming in the regenerative way they have chosen. Jane describes how Greenshank guided them through the process. Josie Lawrence of Ethos Environmental Planning and Gabriel Connor-Streich, Greenshank's co-founder, describe the habitats going in across around 22 hectares: grassland restoration on a lovely slope, enhanced watercourses with woodland alongside and a grassland buffer against the nearby arable cropping, and orchards. Together they give bats, birds and invertebrates different places to live. The family are already seeing more ground beetles, coach horse beetles and ladybirds, and hope for more frogs, newts and owls. If your development is affected by biodiversity net gain, visit greenshank-environmental.com biodiversity net gain | BNG habitat bank | Herefordshire | North Herefordshire | Hampton Wafre | regenerative farming | soil organic matter | watercourse restoration | grassland restoration | orchards | Ethos Environmental Planning | nature restoration | planning permission | farming and nature