If it is grazed regularly a square metre of it can contain up to 50 different species of plant.Until the Second World War chalk grassland stretched in a great unbroken belt across the downs of southern England, from Dorset over to Bedfordshire, much of it kept as trim as a bowling green by the grazing of thousands of sheep. But the urgent need to provide food for a nation at war began a process of ploughing-up for crops that has continued until this day, when an estimated 80 per cent of the original grassland area has gone. In areas such as the North and South Downs, the natural grassland survives only in patches on the scarp slopes of the hills, which are too steep for the plough.Salisbury Plain’s 40,000 grassland acres, however, are just as they have always been: the army’s 100-year-long occupation has prevented them from being ploughed up or intensively farmed and, unlike most of the modern British countryside, they remain free from pesticides and artificial fertilisers. The result is a continuing profusion of wildlife, which is quite astonishing in a countryside ravaged by intensive farming .The plain contains no fewer than 14,000 pairs of skylarks, the highest number in one place in Britain of a bird whose population has crashed; 400 pairs of whinchats; 70 pairs of barn owls; and more than 20 pairs of stone curlews, one of Britain’s rarest summer visitors. It is more species-rich in wild flowers than anywhere else, and the same goes for butterflies. “This is the only place in Britain where you might get a sense of wildlife as you see it in the C?nnes of the Pyrenees, in terms of actual numbers,” said Steven Davis, the English Nature conservation officer who is in charge of the restoration project “There are literally clouds of butterflies. You can see thousands of dark green fritillaries in some of the firing impact areas.”Firing and armoured manoeuvres do not, however, harm the wildlife as one might suppose.

Paul Toynton, conservation officer for the Defence Estates, said: “Most of nature conservation here doesn’t really conflict with military training.” Indeed, tanks and guns churning up the grassland helps, because the movement provides new, bare ground for annual plants. It is rich in seeds, which provide plenty of food for wild birds.David Arnold-Foster, English Nature’s chief executive, said: “We are confident that all our partners can work together to balance the needs of nature with military training on Salisbury Plain. Flower power can co-exist with firepower.”That certainly seemed the case late last week. Even as the shells from the AS-90 howitzers were screaming overhead to burst in flame and smoke on the distant downland, flocks of linnets and goldfinches were gathering and twittering on the great banks of dead thistles.Roe deer moved through the scrub, unconcerned.

And each time your ears recovered from the thumping crack of the big guns, you could hear the skylarks singing.. Before the fight everybody involved knew that Joe Calzaghe would have an easy night – and he did. On Saturday, in the hour before Mike Tyson entered the ring, Calzaghe, a genuine world champion, easily beat Will McIntyre. Before the fight everybody involved knew that Joe Calzaghe would have an easy night – and he did. On Saturday, in the hour before Mike Tyson entered the ring, Calzaghe, a genuine world champion, easily beat Will McIntyre.
Calzaghe retained his World Boxing Organisation super-middleweight title for the ninth time when he dropped McIntyre, from Louisiana, in round four of a fight that was horribly one-sided and should have been stopped by the referee in round three.