A pioneering project has boosted wader numbers in Orkney by working with farmers

The North Isles Landscape Partnership Scheme is coming to an end. As part of the project RSPB Scotland has been working with farmers to help nature. Land that was unused has been grazed by local farmers and new habitat has been created for threatened wading birds.

In this video farmers and RSPB Scotland's Thomas Wells explain how they did it and what the results have been.

This work was led by RSPB Scotland and funded by the
North Isles Landscape Project which brings together
Orkney Islands Council, NatureScot and
Highlands and Islands Enterprise
as well as local community groups.

[RussTillling]

Great to combine wildlife restoration with agriculture ❤. Is it the scrapes or the cattle that help the lapwing? Maybe the insect population is boosted by cattle dung? Is it normal for there to be no trees or shrubs?

[julian.morgan]

It would have been interesting to have taken a deeper dive into the ecology of precisely how grazing and wildlife conservation can be symbiotic. All I really learned is that if you dig some shallow scrapes where water will collect, you will get waders which aren't there on land where the water runs off. Go figure, waders like wading!

I happen to know a little about grazing ecology (at least the basics), but I think you've missed an opportunity to inform the public, including farmers, about how it all works. That's a shame given how many wetland species are in trouble.