Section 3.b. "Smaller-Scale Rewilding: A Practical Guide to Restoring Nature in Your Own Space"
The latest section of LettsSafari's guide to smaller-scale rewilding: 'Creating Microhabitats for Rewilding: Open Scrubland and Thicket.'
We’re publishing weekly instalments of the definitive guide to smaller-scale rewilding directly in LettsSafari+ and to your inbox - section after section, week after week. Packed with amazing photography and immersive videos straight from our parks.
If you're not a paid member of LettsSafari, subscribe today. Get the amazing guide and help us build more rewilding safari parks for the price of a cup of coffee a month.
Creating Microhabitats for Rewilding: Open Scrubland and Thicket
Scrub (or shrubland) is a transitional habitat - basically the intermediate stage between grassland and woodland in ecological succession. It consists of patches of shrubs, brambles, young trees, and herbaceous plants in a mix, often fairly dense and tangled. In large rewilding areas, scrub is sometimes viewed as temporary (on its way to becoming forest) or something for large herbivores to keep in check.
“But in smaller-scale rewilding, scrubland can be maintained as a valuable habitat in its own right.”
Open scrub means you have clumps or strips of shrubby growth interspersed with open areas (grass or bare ground). This heterogeneity is fantastic for wildlife: it provides shelter, nesting sites, berries and forage, and varying microclimates.
Many declining bird species actually depend on scrub - for example, nightingales favour dense thorny thickets of hawthorn or blackthorn to nest in, often near ground level, with adjacent grass for feeding. Yellowhammers and linnets often nest in gorse or hedges. Scrub edges are frequented by bats hunting insects, and by larger animals like foxes or deer for cover.
To create scrub habitat in a small project, the approach can be quite laissez-faire: allow part of the area to undergo natural regeneration. Often, if you stop mowing or cultivating, the first colonisers are coarse grasses and wildflowers (meadow stage), and soon after, pioneer shrubs and trees start to seed in (scrub stage). Depending on your region, this could be species like bramble (blackberry), wild rose, hawthorn, buckthorn, birch seedlings, etc.
The Importance of Bramble for Rewilding Parks and Gardens
Bramble, the 'obstinate weed', plays a vital role in rewilding and landscape restoration efforts. It's a key ingredient in the mosaic of habitats in LettsSafari parks. Its dense thickets provide shelter, food, and habitat for a wide range of wildlife, contributing significantly to biodiversity. In addition to supporting fauna, bramble aids in soil restoration and carbon sequestration. Less 'obstinate weed' than 'unsung hero' in ecological recovery projects. Climbing bramble can be easier to control than creeping bramble which needs to be tightly managed by humans in gardens and specific herbivores in parks.
In many places, bramble (Rubus fruticosus) is the king of scrub - it can form expansive thorny brambles that flower (great for bees) and fruit (blackberries feed birds, mice, foxes, and humans!) and create a protective tangle for animals to hide in. While gardeners often battle bramble as a “weed,” rewilders see its value as a cornerstone scrub species.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to LettsSafari+ to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.