Chalk Life/Dog Life project

Chalk Life/Dog Life is part of Changing Chalk which aims to connect communities to their local chalk grassland to protect and restore this declining rare habitat.

Chalk Life/Dog Life volunteers are a brilliant group of people who carry out site checks on Landport Bottom in Lewes and Butt’s Brow in Eastbourne.

Would you like to be part of this friendly group helping look after chalk grassland?

Volunteers check the sheep are okay, look out for sheep worrying, and note poo bags and litter, and report anything they find back to the site manager.

Chalk grassland is an extremely sensitive habitat with several threatened species. These include a diverse array of wildflower species which thrive on the alkaline chalk soil. Dog poo alters the pH of this soil making it harder for the specialist wildflowers to grow.

The conservation grazing of sheep and cows keeps the vegetation levels low; disturbance by dogs interferes with the nibbling effectiveness of the livestock.

Skylarks are ground-nesting birds whose numbers have dropped dramatically in recent years. They are threatened world-wide. Keeping dogs under close control and sticking to the footpaths, especially during ground-nesting bird season from March to September, helps protect them. They love to nest in tussocky grass in chalk grassland; disturbance can cause them to abandon their eggs.

To volunteer on Landport Bottom email jennyl@railwaylandproject.org

To volunteer on Butt’s Brow email jennies@railwaylandproject.org

We’d love you to be involved!