Jannine said: 

“I moved onto my smallholding 10 years ago and have always been interested in managing my land environmentally. I‘m delighted that we have a pair of breeding willow tit. We will be improving an area of willow scrub and planting a new hedgerow with the help of a local community group to create a movement corridor for them. 

“I’m also investigating experimenting with growing a number of novel crops such as hemp and flax which could help to lock carbon into the soil, whilst also bringing in income. Also, I’m looking into growing sphagnum moss, which I will propagate and sell on to restoration projects, producing a crop whilst seeing the effect it has on water quality. There are also areas of my land which are lying wet, which I am interested in seeing if I could use for paludiculture, a bit like what Steve is doing. 

“By being part of the Land Managers’ Group, I've learnt so much. Through talking to other members, I’ve been able to get a better understanding of my land, the soil structure and the wildlife that I can support.

“The group has allowed me to make connections. The farmers and land managers in the area feel like more of a community now. I think that it’s really important that we keep these connections going. I would like to see a machinery lending scheme, so that we can share resources and aren’t all having to invest in expensive machinery individually.” 

Steve said: 

“Since Natural England bought Moss Side Farm, we have been hard at work restoring some areas of the peat into mini bogs and creating plans for wetter farming trials on others. With an eye on water quality and flood management we have been removing old land drainage and putting deep trench bunds in, allowing the peat to re-wet and hold water for longer before slowly releasing it. We have also been monitoring water quality and the greenhouse gas reductions that result from re-wetting the peat. 

“These capital works can be tricky, especially where we have been trialling topsoil inversion, but by being part of the Land Managers’ Group we have been able to involve local farmers, Steve and Tim, who is not only a really skilled digger driver but knows where all of the land drains are.  

“Spending time with and learning from pioneering farmers such as Jannine and Steve, has been something I just wouldn’t have had the chance to do without being part of the group.” 

Mark said: 

“During the lifespan of the group, we have been working to develop a Landscape Recovery Scheme for the Wigan Greenheart, much of which is looking at enhancing willow tit habitat, grasslands and reedbeds across the borough, many of which will contribute to natural flood management and water quality improvements.  

“We have already had some really successful projects such as the natural flood management work at Bickershaw. We changed the path of the water course through the site from a concrete channel into a new meandering surface river that was purposefully impeded by vegetation and rocks to slow the flow of water. The water table is now naturally higher and where water once travelled through the site in about 30 minutes it’s now so slow that it’s almost immeasurable. In fact, after the huge amount of rain that fell on New Year’s Day 2025 there was no flooding downstream at all. 

“Being part of the Land Managers’ Group has allowed us to meet with farmers and to stretch the interest of our Wigan-based partnership further out into the Manchester Mosses, seeing how the Flashes of Wigan & Leigh and the Risley, Holcroft and Chat Moss National Nature Reserve can link up. We’ve even been able to make practical contacts, enabling us to procure fruit trees from another group member and contacts for who might be able supply services like meadow hay cutting.”