Public Servant Lifestyle

The show's closing credits depict Captain Mainwaring and co on outdoor practice manoeuvres at Frog Hill, part of land in Stanford, Norfolk, that was originally requisitioned for Army use during World War Two.

Sixty years on, Stanford's heathland-creation scheme has landed the Silver Otter trophy, awarded annually, by the Defence Estates Conservation Office, to the most outstanding conservation project on land owned by the Ministry of Defence (MOD).

The area's semi-continental climate provides the ideal conditions for heathland (a mosaic of chalk and acid grassland) which supports flora and fauna.

Conservation

Military ownership has helped protect the Stanford heathland from degradation that can result from intensified agricultural use.

While in the 1930's, there were 32,000 hectares of heathland; by 1980 just 7,000 hectares remained, two-thirds of which was within the Army training area.

Between 1987 and last year, a large proportion of trees were felled at Stanford, creating some 231 hectares of heathland. Arable land has been converted into an additional 87.7 hectares of heathland, while more than 314 hectares have undergone regeneration, with the introduction of grazing to previously unmanaged areas.

This project was a team effort involving farm tenants, English Nature, The Farming and Rural Conservation Agency, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Defence Estates with the military.

Restoration

Runner-up in the award (celebrating its 10th anniversary) is Pirbright Conservation Group's Folly Bog project.

The award judges noted the imaginative restoration of water levels at Folly Bog, regarded as one of the most important valley mires in Surrey, with rare, habitat-dependent invertebrate species recorded in its pools.

A clear, spring-fed stream brings base-rich water to the wet acid heathland, and tussocks of Black Bog-rush mark the principal routes of water seepage across the site.

In recent years, local nature historians have voiced concern on the drying of the site. Project aims are to retain and restore the natural hydrology and peat dynamics, by:

- Raising water levels.

- Retaining and increasing the areas of bog pools.

- Monitoring hydrology, vegetation and species response to changes in water levels.

Three other programmes were highly commended:

- The Millennium Wood project at Defence Munitions Gosport, in Hampshire.

- Rarer native British trees, such as Rowan and Spindle, have been planted in a six-acre section of the tri-service armament supply depot.

- Boston Reservoir Regeneration Project, at Catterick, North Yorkshire.

- A chemical and insecticide free oasis, thanks to the reservoir being fenced off, ungrazed and bypassed by both military training and agriculture for many years.

- The Conservation Group recently reconstructed a dam area, cracked by torrential rain, and intends to provide public access to the disabled.

- The Great Crested Newt Project at RAF Molesworth.

A recording of 284 Great Crested newts makes Molesworth one of the most important sites in the country for this Biodiversity species.

Winning projects have ranged from pond restoration and woodland management schemes, to the restoration of rights of way across moorland and the creation of a visitor centre.

Firing Range

Conservation techniques employed at a firing range near Colchester, in Essex have also been recognised, with an award from English Nature.

Through the work of Chico Duncan, a range superintendent, Fingringhoe ranges has become a rich haven for wildlife, flora and fauna. Birds, including Teal and Sedge Warbler, have made their home there, whilst rare creatures, such as sea slugs and mud snails, have been spotted.

The work at Stanford, Fingringhoe and other sites forms part of the MOD's wider commitments to protecting and respecting the environment. The MOD estate consists of nearly 240,000 hectares scattered among some 3,100 sites and includes most of the UK's indigenous habitat types.

Whilst the primary purpose of this estate is, of course, military training, the experience at Fingringhoe, as Chico Duncan commented, "proves that wildlife, flora and fauna can live in harmony with a firing range and its surrounding land ".

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