England’s 35,000 orchards offer rich pickings but half in poor state

More than 35,000 traditional orchards have been identified across England using aerial photographs – but almost half are in a poor condition, experts warn.

The five-year project to map traditional orchards, which are home to at least 1,800 wildlife species but are in decline, aimed to record the location, age and condition of the habitats.

Conservationists from the People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) scoured the countryside looking for orchards, which can be spotted on aerial photographs because of the planting patterns, with trees growing in evenly-spaced lines.

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The first ever survey from the air identified 35,378 traditional orchards across 51 counties, making up almost 40,000 acres of habitat.

A fifth of the orchards were surveyed by volunteers, to record species, age and condition of the fruit trees.

The study revealed less than one in 10 (nine per cent) were in top condition, while 46 per cent were in a good state and 45 per cent were in a poor condition.

Traditional orchards tend to have a low density of trees and are cultivated without pesticides.Animals graze around the trees instead of land being mowed.

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They are also home to hundreds of traditional varieties of apples, including Peasgood’s Nonsuch, Sheep’s Snout, Bastard Rough Coat and Slack my Girdle.

The PTES said traditional orchards were at risk from neglect, intensive agriculture and pressure from land development.

Anita Burrough, orchard officer for the trust, said: “The mosaic of habitats that comprise a traditional orchard provide food and shelter for at least 1,800 species of wildlife, including the rare noble chafer beetle which relies on the decaying wood of old fruit trees. With this loss of habitat, we also face losing rare English fruit varieties, traditions, customs and knowledge, in addition to the genetic diversity represented by the hundreds of species that are associated with traditional orchards.”

But the survey has helped pinpoint where traditional orchards still remain.

The trust believes that the inventory will now enable them to set and monitor targets to protect the habitats and restore traditional orchards to top condition.