A new team is at work boosting natural regeneration on the Lowther Estate.
Doing their bit for the environment are a small group of Tamworth pigs — a traditional native breed — which are helping drive the natural growth of trees, shrubs and wildflowers.
They achieve this through their natural foraging behaviour, which involves them ploughing through the turf with their snouts in search of worms, grubs and roots. This exposes bare soil and provides the perfect seedbed for a diverse mix of plant life to recolonise woodlands and pastures.
Conservation assistant Joe Clements said: “They are stand-ins for a missing native mammal, the wild boar. Our native trees and wildflowers lived alongside wild boar for thousands of years until they became extinct in the UK.
“So, by allowing the Tamworth pigs to rootle freely through the fields, we are kick-starting a healthy and diverse ecosystem — we are restoring a missing piece of the ecological puzzle.
“It is also brilliant to be a small part of conserving hardy native breeds of livestock — many pig breeds went extinct in the 20th Century as they were no longer deemed commercially viable, including our own local breed the Cumberland pig.
“It is a real shame we will never have Cumberland pigs rootling through Cumbrian woods again, but at least hardy native livestock breeds are being valued once again for their role in regenerative land management.
“Watch out for fat ginger pigs next time you are in the Lowther valley, and watch out for the birds, bees, butterflies and a whole plethora of other wildlife that will follow in their wake as the landscape becomes more diverse in the coming years.”
Joe went on to explain that the estate is attempting to blur the boundaries between woodland and open fields, with the aim being to create a semi-open “wood pasture” landscape where there are pockets of high woodland, scrubby thickets and open glades of wild flower rich grassland.
He added: “This is a much more biodiverse habitat than either woodland or open field on their own. It also offers lots of benefits to the livestock such as shelter in the winter and shade in the summer.”
One of the most recognisable of the traditional pig breeds, the Tamworth is thought to be the most typical breed descended from the species indigenous to the British Isles, the Old English Forest pig. As with all traditional breeds, the Tamworth is hardy and can be kept in environments ranging from rough pasture to meadowland.
