HALF of Surrey’s traditional apple orchards are rated poor by the People’s Trust for Endangered Species.

The root causes for the decline in the scale and quality of traditional orchards are neglect, the intensification of agriculture, cheaper fruit and nut imports, and development.

Traditional orchards are a haven for wildlife, but since the 1950s, 90 percent of this habitat has disappeared in England. Keen to stem the decline, the trust is providing orchard owners with practical advice and support, and encouraging people to plant and buy native fruit varieties.

Resources on offer include orchard management advice and skills development, a fruit variety database and grant funding totalling £15,000 for tree planting.

The trust has created a series of practical guides, to encourage orchard owners to manage their orchards in a way that is both sympathetic to wildlife and improves condition, covering everything from pruning and grafting fruit trees to grass management.

There are thousands of apple varieties, many with geographical associations such as the Blenheim Orange, which originates from Woodstock, near the stately home in Oxfordshire, or the Worcester Permain which dates back to 1873.

The trust is developing a digital record of fruit varieties, which will complement the Brogdale National Fruit Collection in Kent, and the searchable online database will be available next spring.

The trust is also working with private owners and organisations, in particular The National Trust, to increase the distribution of rare varieties and ensuring local cultivars are planted in their orchards.

Veteran fruit trees with dead and decaying wood are an important source of food and nesting sites, particularly for insects such as the rare noble chafer beetle, but the long-term conservation of remaining traditional orchards requires trees at all stages of growth.

The trust encourages owners to leave deadwood and decaying trees in their orchards and is also providing small grants to individuals or community groups to plant new trees that will ensure the continuation of such habitats for decades to come.

Trust orchards officer Megan Gimber said: “We consulted with over 900 orchard owners about their needs and how we can support them in improving the condition of their orchards, and we have developed these resources with their requirements in mind.

“By helping people to improve the condition of their orchards, we are also helping the wildlife that depends upon these special sites, such as bees and butterflies which are in decline.

“Furthermore, we are also helping to preserve rare fruit varieties, traditions, customs and knowledge.”

In 2011, it produced the first habitat inventory of traditional orchards for 51 counties in England, followed by an inventory for 22 counties in Wales, which was published in 2013.

Condition assessments were carried out by hundreds of volunteers on around 20 per cent of the 43,000 mapped orchards, and 45 per cent of the orchards in England were found to be in declining condition as well as 35 per cent in Wales.

In contrast, less than 10 percent of orchards were rated as excellent in England and Wales with Surrey on seven percent.

lWritten guides, video tutorials and grant application forms are available online at www.ptes.org/ orchards