Burrator Forest Uses Virtual Fencing to Protect Trees

If you want to understand how messy real-world conservation can be, Burrator Forest is a good place to start. The site covers 353 hectares beside Burrator Reservoir on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon and, as the government case study explains, it is not a sealed-off block of trees. It is a working woodland, a visitor space and part of a wider mix of moor, water and wildlife habitat. South West Water owns the site and South West Lakes Trust manages it as part of more than 50 places across south-west England. That matters, because Burrator shows us what integrated management looks like in practice: not one grand answer, but several practical fixes used together.

One of the biggest problems is easy to describe and difficult to solve. On Dartmoor, local people have common land rights that allow animals to graze on the moor, and livestock from nearby farms can also stray. When gates are left open or fences are damaged, ponies and cattle can move into the forest and feed on young trees. According to South West Lakes Trust, that grazing cost Burrator Forest about £5,500 in lost conifer trees over an 18-month period between 2024 and 2025. The trust says those trees had been planted without guards because guards are only used where they are truly needed. Once animals get inside, moving them back out can take hours, especially when thick vegetation has built up along the fence line.

The first response has been practical rather than flashy. Existing gates are being fitted with self-closing mechanisms, volunteers patrol fence lines and regular audits check for fresh damage. Across the trust’s wider estate, fencing maintenance already costs hundreds of thousands of pounds each year, so every broken panel or open gate adds to a bill that is already steep. **What this means:** public access and conservation are not opposites, but they do depend on small acts of care. A gate left open may look minor to a visitor, yet for a young woodland it can mean months of lost growth and a costly replanting job.

The most interesting change may be the move away from relying on physical fences alone. Through the Water Industry National Environment Programme, South West Water has been working with tenant farmers to test Nofence collars on cattle. In simple terms, this is virtual fencing: GPS-enabled collars help manage where animals go without putting another barrier across the countryside. The trust fitted 50 collars in 2024 and, after reporting no problems, bought another 50 in 2025. The data from those collars is now being studied to show where cattle prefer to graze and when they are most active. That gives managers a much clearer picture of behaviour on the ground, which is often more useful than guessing from a map.

And here is the part worth pausing on. The goal is not to shut cattle out of the whole area. Instead, South West Lakes Trust wants to use the collar data to build small enclosures around the most vulnerable spots, such as young trees and other sensitive areas. Rather than fencing cattle out, the trust is, in its own phrasing, fencing the trees in. That is a useful shift for us to notice. Good land management is not always about drawing harder boundaries. Sometimes it is about deciding exactly what needs protection and leaving the rest of the site more flexible. That can be cheaper, less disruptive and better suited to a place where farming, recreation and nature all meet.

Cattle are only one part of the story. South West Lakes Trust also works with Artemis Land Management Services on deer and grey squirrel surveys, deterrence work, extra fencing and selective culling where needed. Grey squirrels can strip bark from trees, which cuts the value of commercial timber and weakens the crop for the future. Work on squirrel management is still being developed with Artemis, British Red Squirrel and other local conservation groups. The trust is also testing sheep’s fleece mulch mats around individual trees to deter deer and smaller mammals such as voles. That idea grew from farm experience: raw fleece placed around a sapling can offer protection, but once the material is used beyond the farm it has to be treated and licensed. Even visitor footfall and sheep grazing in nearby fields seem to change how much damage deer do. The partnership work also creates training opportunities for people learning rural and forestry skills, helping practical knowledge pass to the next generation.

There is an even more surprising turn in the case study. At other South West Lakes Trust sites, Eurasian beavers have turned out to be helpful rather than harmful. Their browsing keeps willow growth down, which reduces the need for expensive thinning, and it can also stop reservoir edges from becoming so overgrown that anglers struggle to cast. Although beavers often spark debate, the trust says their effect at its sites has been overwhelmingly positive. That does not mean every animal is easy to manage. What it does mean is that the answer is rarely to label a species as simply good or bad. The closing lesson from the trust is worth holding on to: go into forestry with your eyes open, expect animals to behave in ways you did not predict, and act on evidence gathered from the site itself. **Why it matters:** Burrator Forest shows you that modern conservation is less about one perfect fix and more about watching carefully, testing ideas and spending money where it will actually work.