Stocken Orchard sustainable management

Manage a traditional cider apple orchard to allow harvesting of fruit while enhancing the site’s biodiversity. Stocken Orchard was purchased with LCF monies in 2014 to preserve the site for the rare Noble Chafer Beetle. Management of the site has started to restore the orchard helped by volunteers. The purchase of harvesting equipment through the LCF meant that apples were harvested and sold this year. Management of the orchard to enable harvesting while maintaining the biodiversity of the site will now start with dividing the orchard into four plots to enable rotation of the grassland management using grazing. It will also mean that the site is much more manageable for volunteers so future harvests should be more productive while the site’s biodivesity will continue to thrive.