It’s pretty obvious that farming and land management have made a huge impact on The South Downs. There’s a great report called Why Farming Matters to the South Downs from the NFU that explains how the environment of the local area has been influenced by the management of the land. Great reading if you have a few minutes.
Some random facts about The South Downs…
- There are 1,742 farms on The South Downs
- The South Downs covers 1,641 square kilometres
- There are 741 Scheduled Ancient Monuments and 30 listed historic parklands
- 85% of the area is farmed land, 14% is non agricultural (e.g. woodland), and 1% is urban
- Woodland covers 20% of the South Downs – approximately half of this is ancient woodland
- There are around 3,000 kilometres of Rights of Way, which include the 100 mile long South Downs Way National Trail
- There are 835 hectares of National Nature Reserves and 9,527 hectares of Sites of Special Scientific Interest
Bepton Ranger 