Wildlife and Landscape of the Luppitt Valley

The Luppitt valley contains over one thousand field parcels, typifying the tapestry of small fields, thick hedges and copses which has characterised the Blackdown Hills landscape for centuries.  It also contains large expanses of unenclosed common land.  The richest areas for wildlife are associated with the mires along the springline, the river corridor, the broadleaved woodlands, unimproved areas of common land, and unimproved drier meadows on the valley sides. 

Mires on the springline, where they have not been drained or altered with artificial fertilisers, are cornucopias of plants, insects and other wildlife.  They support characteristic wetland plants like Ragged Robin, Devil’s-bit Scabious, Fleabane and Spotted Orchids, and hundreds of grasshoppers, dragonflies, beetles and spiders.  Unimproved meadows on drier soils support plants like Salad Burnet, Black Knapweed, Betony and Corky-fruited Water Dropwort. 

The River Love is frequented by Otters, as well as the resident Beaver colony.  The water supports Brown Trout and a range of other fish including Stone Loach, Lampreys and Eels.

The diverse landscape supports a rich Bat fauna, including Daubenton’s and Whiskered.  There is a healthy population of Hares, and Barn Owls are known to nest.  Snipe and Woodcock frequent the Commons.

For all this rich diversity, the biodiversity of the Luppitt valley has declined substantially in the past fifty years, in common with the rest of the Blackdown Hills and the wider English landscape.  We need concerted effort to secure the wildlife we have, attract more to return, and strengthen the ecological function of the landscape, in order to create the resilience we will need to endure a changing climate.  Landscape Recovery gives us the chance to do just that.