Grassland, Heathland, Wetland and Woodland Management
Mown grassland clippings and their seeds are strewn onto Middle Paddock to increase wildflower species numbers
15th August 2023
After further mowing of my mini-meadow at home, I arrive with another bag of clippings, intending to strew them on Middle Paddock in the hope of some seed dropping onto bare patches. Mole hills are particularly useful since they provide excellent bare soil for seed germination yet with limited competition from other well established plants.
An old mole-hill provides the perfect patch of bare soil for new wildflower species to germinate
A quick look around reveals that a number of new species of flowering plants have invaded the area since last year's strewing operation. We now have Lesser Knapweed (also known as Hardhead), Common Birdsfoot Trefoil and Tormentil. Gorse has also stepped up to the plate and produced a mass of yellow flowers, although I will monitor this particular individual since it is a very invasive shrub quite capable of taking over vast tracts of land – like a John Wyndham Trifid (and potentially as painful if you get on the wrong side of one!).
Hardhead, Tormentil and Common Birdsfoot Trefoil
Not everything here is about living the good life, as evidenced by the carcass of a recently deceased rabbit. Cause of death is a mystery and could be anything from fox, to dog to disease. My suspicions fall on the canine, since it looks like it was good and healthy in life (disease dismissed) and has not been eaten (no fox would waste a good meal). Pet dogs however abound at Wilderness Wood, whilst rabbits are a bit cocky about grazing in broad daylight. Dogs are more likely to kill for sport rather than food. Wasps are already licking up bodily fluids and it won't be long before the death of a rabbit becomes literally the life blood of countless other creatures at Wilderness Wood – nothing is wasted.
A dead rabbit - suspects are fox, disease and domestic dog
I decide to check the hedge planted three years ago between Middle Paddock and the area of woodland beyond. The young hedge shrubs have largely been swamped by bramble and nettle, but that is no problem. On the contrary, young shrubs can grow unmolested by deer (and rabbits) deep in a patch of these well armoured plants. I'm particularly pleased to see a young wayfaring tree reaching high above the nettles. Most of the small shrubs are hawthorn, but I do spot a hornbeam and a hazel also. In a few years time we will look to 'cut-and-layer' these and any other young trees to form a laid hedge.
Wayfaring Tree and Hornbeam are growing well in the young Hawthorn hedge(Middle Paddock)
Moving on to Orchid Glade, which I have not visited for a month or more, I discover four of the Common Spotted Orchids are in fruit and scattering their tiny seeds whenever the wind blows. I give one dry pod and its seeds a helping hand, but it will be 5 or 6 years before they too are mature enough to bear seed of their own.
Emily has asked me to take a few photos of the new ponds to accompany her application for funding for the proposed new boardwalk, so I wander down to see how they are doing. Last weeks optimism after significant rainfall evaporates as quickly as the water in the ponds. Rainfall in the summer is just swallowed-up by dry soil, with only the middle pond having any water in it. It is evident that this will be the norm from now on. We may be able to deepen the ponds a little, or raise the embankment but I'm pretty sure there will be no permanent water here. What I am looking forward to is tall Reedmace, Common Reed and other emergent plants developing on either side of the boardwalk, to add mystery to a walk across the area.
Despite the lack of rainfall, the area around Middle Pond is greening-over nicely
Once again the damp mud reveals who has visited recently. Large deer slots suggest a fallow deer, perhaps a doe, since there are smaller slots alongside hers. It is almost possible to read the scene, with the fawn innocently wandering into the deep mud of the lower pond and stopping abruptly, its front legs sinking several inches into the sticky substrate. It goes no further and one assumes it backtracks to dry land, a lesson learned.
A Fallow Deer fawn leaves its hoof ‘slots’ in the deep mud
Deer have taken the top off the Reedmace spotted 4 weeks earlier in the middle pond. I suspect it didn't appeal to their taste, as most of the plant has been left intact. I have a go at building a stick barrier next to the large beech tree in the hope of deterring kids and deer from entering the area, but there is little hope of either paying it any attention.
Reedmace four weeks ago (left) now cropped by deer (right)
Moving up Hemlock Valley I pause to pick my first blackberries of the summer. They are still a bit tart for my liking, but fine mixed with apple in a pie. As a countryman and conservationist I have a love hate relationship with brambles. They seem to swamp everything, but at the same time protect young saplings from being browsed by deer and they provide excellent forage with their sweet berries, yet slash bare legs and exposed wrists if you dare to stray into their domain. A couple of families with young children are also collecting a few berries, but are smart enough to stay on the path rather than enter the bramble thickets.
At Bat Park I am delighted to find Common Heather in full bloom. Five years earlier I lifted small rooted plugs of heather from the 'mother-load' – the one large patch on the site. These one inch plugs have grown year-on-year to the size of dinner plates and will soon merge to form a new 'mother-load' for future plug transplanting. This is despite the attentions of the local rabbit population. It is doing so well though that I suspect we could just leave it to spread via its own seed dispersal mechanism and perhaps assisting it a little by annual knocking-back of the invasive bracken.
‘The Mother Load’ of Common Heather provided plugs to plant elsewhere in Bat Park Heath
These 2cm transplanted plugs of Common Heather have grown to 20 times their original size
I spot two chaps leaning on the gate discussing Bat Park. It turns out to be Tom the forestry advisor for the woods. I've only met him once before so it gives me the chance to explain the management plan here. He is accompanied by Dom, who works for Forestry England (formerly The Forestry Commission) who is checking the site to make sure the grant support provided is appropriate. Usually they check using satellite photographs, but site visits such as this are important.
Bat Park doesn't fit the grant requirements of a woodland area, since it is now being managed as a grassland area funded a few years ago by The Lund Fund. I'm glad that Tom has removed it from the woodland grant since the two vegetation types are managed in quite different ways. Trees need to be protected from predatious grey squirrels, deer and even rabbits, whilst grassland only develops if the trees are removed by felling, weeding-out when young, or thanks to browsers and grazers like deer and rabbit. Such is the importance of medium to large herbivores when managing a patch of natural vegetation for conservation purposes.
Currently the government is trying to increase the area of woodland in the UK to address Net-Zero, with trees playing a vital role in reducing CO2 from the atmosphere. However, increasing tree cover at the expense of natural grassland would potentially decrease biodiversity – an equally important environmental target we need to address.
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