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SCALING CONSERVATION

Restoring wildlife habitats and increasing biodiversity.

Oxygen Conservation became custodians of this beautiful and historic estate in May 2023. Our vision is to protect and enhance this magnificent landscape. We aim to restore wildlife habitats and increase biodiversity, improving the overall health of the land.

For us, this means stepping back and allowing natural processes to return. One major focus is to restore the connectivity of ancient woodland and wood pasture, which would once have covered the land with a beautiful mosaic of different tree species, scrub, and grassland. For this purpose, we have set aside areas for natural regeneration and re-planting, and are allowing the existing hedge network to expand naturally. We will also create flower-rich meadows to provide habitats for pollinating insects and birds. A longer-term goal is to enhance the health of the River Molland Yeo, restoring natural processes – the long-term strategic reintroduction of keystone species such as beaver, which operate as ‘ecosystem engineers’ would really help here!

You may be able to see some of these conservation works as you explore the estate, and by visiting year after year, you’ll witness first hand, the transformation of this spectacular landscape.

A WORKING FARM

Balancing agriculture with landscape-scale conservation.

As a working farm, we also aim to create a complementary blend of agriculture and landscape restoration: we are firm believers that one does not exclude the other.

To accomplish this, we are reducing livestock grazing to allow grassland health and biodiversity to improve. We aim to become fully organic with our agricultural practices and are introducing more regenerative techniques.

In the future, we hope to have our native rare breed cows along with newly introduced pigs grazing amongst scrub and woodland, providing both excellent conservation as well as high-quality, organic meat.

MINIMISING OUR FOOTPRINT

Not just sustainable, but regenerative practices.

We eagerly anticipate your arrival at Mornacott, where you can witness our ambitious landscape-scale conservation vision firsthand, engage with nature as it flourishes back to full health, and indulge in the luxurious comforts provided by our sustainable and regenerative practices. Like all our ecotourism offerings, we are committed to minimising our footprint as much as possible.

 

  • Our cleaning supplies and toiletries are all as environmentally friendly as possible, and we ensure that our on-site team utilise sustainable and eco-friendly practices.

  • Here at Mornacott, we inherited the biomass boiler which is used to heat both the buildings and swimming pool. Powered by non-native timber felled on the estate, we are able to make way for native deciduous broadleaf woodland planting.

  • We source as many ingredients as possible from the local area, or even the estate itself. We are particularly proud of our Devon Red Ruby beef, sourced straight from the fields, and of course the eggs from our friendly hens.

  • A borehole provides fresh drinking water, and we recycle as much as possible.

  • In terms of transportation, EV charging points are also available on-site.