Project Title

SCRUB AND BRACKEN CONTROL

Code

CM6

Project summary

A co-ordinated approach to this conservation task needs to be applied across the SRB5 area (and probably beyond). The aim is to arrest vegetational succession where traditional farming (grazing, hay meadows, etc.) and natural events (fire) have created more or less stable habitats in which specialised plants and animals have established.

In the SRB5 area scrub and bracken are a serious problem on large heathland sites (such as Whitwell Moor). Control on the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust's Wharncliffe Heath reserve has been a huge task and made complicated by the very rocky terrain and a huge fire occurring in a drought year during the mid 1990s. Grazing of livestock and controlled burning, birch pulling, felling and chemical treatments have yet to turn the tide.

On smaller heathland sites control may be easier, simply because the work involved is so much smaller in scale, although more labour intensive. For these sites physical removal of scrub, bracken (Exchange Sidings), rhododendron (Quarry Hill) and introduced alder (Little Don Acid Heathland site) will be required. Chemical spraying of azulox is not recommended on small sites, especially where public access is easy. Removal of cut vegetation from heathland sites is required so as not to build up nutrient levels that allow invasive species in.

Some scrub and bracken clearance will also be required as a part of woodland (to maintain glades and open routeways for people and horses) and grassland management. Bracken control is best done twice a year and there are certain optimum times when control should be carried out. Bracken control should be avoided when the plants are sporulating (since spores are suspected to be carcinogenic), i.e. in late summer/early autumn.

Project management

Programme of work (prioritised), tools and equipment, community consultation, publicity, volunteer management.
Monitoring effects of management.

Project locations

Large and small sites.
Across the Stocksbridge area.

Planning permission

NO

Project links

Environmental stewards (A6)
Community tools (C1)
Community composting (C5)
Young persons environment team (C7)
Heather management (CM1)
Woodland management (CM4)
Grassland/hay meadow management (CM7)

Economic Implications

Funding - set up costs

Information to be provided

Funding - running costs

Information to be provided

Employment

Cost of environment stewards' time, specialist contractors (on large sites).

Tourism

Enhance local character of upland fringe moors and maintain their beauty in flowering periods. People find a heathland in flower an attraction and especially in a mosaic of other habitats, as well as on a large scale.

Social Implications

Community involvement

Limited to those sites within the urban/suburban area.

Schools involvement

Possibly. Townend Common heathland area could be a good educational resource with its mosaic of habitats and industrial past.

Recreational benefits

Work involved can be very physical but health promoting.

Environmental Implications

Local Agenda 21

Enhance and diversify habitats.

Wildlife

Of benefit to a number of important species (see CM1 for heathland species).

Project viability

Constraints

Adequate funding
Control work can be labour intensive
Nature of terrain to work
Lack of interest from local community
For effective control, in some cases work needs to be repeated.