Restoring the chalk at Saltbox Hill

Saltbox Hill SSSI represents an important relic complex of Calcareous grassland and open scrub clearings on the slopes of a downland valley in Bromley, south London. Owned and managed by London Wildlife Trust, Saltbox Hill contains a diverse range of typical flora and fauna in addition to supporting some notable rare plant and butterfly species that have restricted regional and national distributions due to habitat loss and fragmentation. The site has suffered from a lack of resource over the years and encroaching scrub is starting to dominate and outcompete the areas of chalk grassland habitat. We want to restore 2.88ha of this UK BAP priority Lowland Calcareous Grassland habitat through a sustainable programme of scrub control, tree felling and clearance. We will use contractors to treat the encroaching scrub, reducing the existing cover to around 5-10%, and will use horses to extract some of the large timber from the felled trees.