Foolish dream or reasonable plan?

[sar]

I shall look out for that book, Eeyore... thanks. And yes my inclination was to go for something suitable for meadow land and concentrate on encouraging a variety of insects and plants. Since i am retiring at the 'normal age', Forfi my logic was that insects were likely to have a shorter life cycle than my own and I would be able to monitor them over a 10 year period say to ensure that I was managing the land appropriately(ie looking for increases in numbers and variety of species)
However this will depend on what land is available,type, money etc. I have no problem planting trees for wildlife and the enjoyment for others in the future and not seeing them mature myself.
Anyway first things first, gotta find the land first. A couple of months away from D day.
Again thanks for all the encouragement.

[wiggy]

Originally Posted by sar

I am shortly going to become a pensioner and will have some money saved up and plenty of time!
My plan is to buy some land , approximately 4 acres and enhance, if it is already there or restore if it is not, the natural habitat. The little bit of reading I have done indicates I need to be careful in what I do and since I have no environmental experience I will take advice. I do have a science background so will plan to survey as well as monitor. At least in the early years my focus will be on vegetation and insects. My ideal( I think) would be chalk land but it will be dictated by closeness to home and price.
I know from the bit of lurking I have done on this forum that there are lots of knowledgable people here.
What would you do in these circumstances?
What land would you look for?size, location
What pitfalls do you see?
Am I a naive idiot Be as brutal as you like!
I could of course get an allotment but I suspect hawthorn hedges buttercups and thistles wouldn't go down well.

That sounds like an excellent plan, Would you want to live on the land or just restore it as a natural habitat? If you can afford to not live off the land then yeah go for it, if however you will need to use the land for making money you might want to have a rethink about the different ways of doing so.
Your best bet is to go for a bimble and have a look at the land around you, 4 acres is alot of land so maybe downsize a little bit. Its averaging out about 10 grand per acre at the moment but it does depend on what your after!

[harasseddad]

once you have your land, you can also try Butterfly Conservation, Buglife, British Dragonfly Society. All have leaflets and advice on land management, and BC have local county groups who would probably come along, survey and give advice. Also many counties have county naturalist's associations, who would probably help with surveys.