Heathland Management

[Al Hyde]

Hi Folks, haven't posted in a while , but feel this is of the utmost importance

Many are already aware that certain methods of heathland management are simply not working, infact they are having the opposite effect and destroying vital habitat.
Heathland may look pretty a few years after management , with its vast open purple heather landscapes, but those that know realise it should be a mozaic of varied habitat.
Grazing in certain areas has already wiped out critical plant species that insects and butterflies rely on , also reptiles do not cope well with the stress of management ... management that quite often is carried out in summer killing reptiles and destroying hibernacula resulting in complete population extinctions.
I am not alone in these observations and have been working closely with other lifelong fieldworkers in my area.

I am the first to admit that management is needed , but some of the methods used are simply not benificial to many heathland species

A long read but, I hope it helps to inform those that are unaware, do not believe all the spin you read about management and grazing, some of these methods are pushing already endangered species closer to the brink. I have been in the field since the early 80's and kept records of diminishing numbers. Since the introduction of grazing and aggressive management numbers of heathland wildlife have dropped at a much more alarming rate.

I have offered my services , saying I will point out hibernacula and populations of reptiles before management at sites I have studied for years. I was met with Polite arrogance, and now a refusal to reply to my emails

RAUK e-Forum: Management and Population Extinctions

Best Regards,
Alan

[Al Hyde]

Ok, To keep the subject here on WAB I have copied the first posts from RAUK to here

I have been in the field since I was very young and start to survey seriously in the early 80's
below are some cases where Heathland management has been followed by a drastic drop in the number of reptiles present and in some cases complete population extinctions.

First as a contrast is Sparrow row in Chobham Surrey. As far as i'm aware no management was carried out here
In 1987 there was a large population of snakes here and some extremely large adders. All have now gone.


Next is a small patch of Heath just off the road in Queens Rd Bisley
This area had many adders and grass snakes untill management removed the small area of birch , there are now no snakes whatsoever


Now my most regular site at Sheats Heath Brookwood. This area has not suffered drastic management just small regular doses. However, Dog Walking traffic his increased dramaticly and many of the snakes are vanishing at an alarming rate. All the Biggies have gone and most adder now emerge away from the hibernacula ready dispersed.


Now we go to Priest lane in Bisley/West End .
I have surveyed this area since 1983 and would find many many adders and heaps of Grass snakes some of which were over 4ft in length.
The mangement is recent (Last year) and since this I can only find 5% of the original population. The area circled is where most could be found and the smaller circle is what used to be the hibernacula that was destroyed during management



Now another area to undergo recent management (Last Winter) Ash Ranges between 3 and 4
This area circled had many reptiles adders, grass snakes, common lizards and slow-worms . The top of the hill has been left like a baron bleak desert and I have not seen a single snake since only two common lizards. The smaller circle is what used to be the hibernacula destroyed during management



Finaly the Brookwood end of Pirbright. I became upset about this some years ago when the work was being carried out as I found dead slowys on site.
The circled area also had many adders and grassies and is now fenced in and grazed. Every visit turns up no reptiles whatsoever, just tons of horse/cattle waste



This is just a very small amount of my records , there are many many more .

All the best,
Alan

[eeyore]

your records are interesting but dont conclusively demonstrate that the managment harms reptiles - the fact that the first site has had no management but still has suffered a major decline tends to point to management not bein the cause of the decline and thus the possibility that on the other sites the two may be simply coincidental.

another possibility is that increased public use has led to the snakes being shyer and thus harder to find.

and on the grazing front heaths have been grazed for hundreds of years , which is why in fact they exist, rather than having succeeded to scrub then woodland, thus it seems somewhat unlikely that the grazing alone has led to a sudden drop in reptiles

[Al Hyde]

Eeyore,
Thanks for your comments.
The first site has been mentioned merely to be fair and demonstrate that lack of management is just as harmful as aggressive management.

These other sites are probably about 20% of all my recorded sites . All have healthy populations until management is carried out. Dead reptiles are found during work (I have photos I will dig out soon) and hibernacula bulldozed to the ground, the very next year or imeadiately afterwards these areas are devoid of life never to return to the healthy numbers.
This is not a fly by night brief insight, it is years of field study from myself and many other fieldworkers all reporting the same devestation.

I will add many more records as soon as I find time.

As to heathland grazing, This has become much more widespread in recent years ,often with high numbers within smmall areas (I will be recieving records and comments about this from other field workers soon and will post here.
newly introduced Cattle on Ash Ranges have already cleared many critical plants that endangered butterflies used to thrive in.

Another well know fact is that heathland is nutrient poor , if they recieve too much nitrogen they return to grassland.

Trust me, i'm only scratching the surface here.

All the best,
Alan

[AGILIS]

HI all what Al says is true successive over management and use of the heaths as recreational playgrounds is the main contributor to our declining reptile/animal life,! Seems the main idea is to clear as much bracken gorse and straggley heather that does not comply with EU regulations then pretty it up and turn the majority of heaths into purpose built circuits for the thousands of dog walkers invited from suburbia to fill the edges in with dog fecis, Then infilling the centers with mini golf links, and the ticket machine car parks to be used as dogging sites making any natrulist parking within the area to become tarred with suspicion by rare passing armed police response units looking for illegal non paying parkers .Keith

[Adam Cheeseman]

Hi Alan,

Have you spoken to James Adler, the Surrey Wildlife Trust's grazing officer? I know he covers the Ash Ranges area.

As Eeyore has said, without grazing and/or active managemet of heathlands we will lose these sites anyway as they were created by clearance and grazing thousands of years ago. Grazing on many Surrey sites was a common practise right up to the 2nd WW. I can't quote you stocking numbers of cattle per hectare of heathland for conservation measures but I do know it to be low, so I would be surprised if they are being overstocked.

The optimum condition any site manager should be aiming for is to have a diverse mix of age stands of heather with a mix of other florisitic and shrub species in a given area that will encourage diversity of faunal species.

I would agree with you that many heathlands have become dog emptying areas and would suspect that this is a significant factor in nutrient deposition on sites and also a major cause of disturbance to wildlife.

Cheers,

Adam

[WW]

Nobody is arguing that heathlands should not be managed, and nobody disputes that heathlands are an artificial habitat created by human activity. However, the way management is done in all too many places seems focussed entirely on creating a Calluna monoculture (and even that with varying degrees of success...), and with little or no consideration for the animals living there.

In the case of reptiles, "management" often involves the destruction of crucial hibernacula (often situated at the basis of "undesirable" plants such as clumps of gorse, stands of birch, or indeed deep piles of dead bracken accumulated over the previous years). Why, if the intention should be to "have a diverse mix of age stands of heather with a mix of other florisitic and shrub species in a given area that will encourage diversity of faunal species", is this so rarely put into practice?

Other examples include burning/stripping 50% or more of a heathland area in one fell swoop - I'm sure the heather will be magnificent in 20 years time, but where are the reptiles and other animals living in that area supposed to go until then? In the meantime, the inhabitable area has been halved, and thus the likely carrying capacity for anys pecies living in that habitat. Since many reptiles (in particular adders) often only survive in small populations of a few dozen individuals anyway, halving the population size carries a high risk of pushing the population over the threshold of extinction.

The especially galling aspect of this is that people with decades of experience of native herps are routinely ignored by habitat managers. It seems quite remarkable that organisations that are in charge of preserving our natural heritage and biodiversity should routinely be involved in bulldozing the essential microhabitats of protected species, killing multiple individuals of those same WCA-protected speces in the process, AFTER having had the existence of those hibernacula pointed out to them. And yet, ask any UK field herpetologist, and he will be able to quote you mutliple examples.

As I said, no-one is arguing against the principles of heathlands being managed at all - what is being pointed out is that common current management practices are costing us an important part of our biodiversity.

[Al Hyde]

Hi Adam,
Thanks for your thoughts.
Yes, have spoken with James Adler and Mark Pearson at SWT , Still have all emails.

Although I am greatly concerned by heathland Grazing most of the damage is done by aggressive management , complete anihilation of areas in a very short time. The destruction of hibernacula during work and complete disregard for what species are present .

I have invited members of SWT to join me at me sites for two reasons

1- before work is carried out so I can point out hibernacula and areas rich in reptiles

2- after work has already been done so I can show where they have destroyed hibernacula /killed reptiles .

Also, many years after work as they claim that these sites are now rich in wildlife , I know they are not and I would like SWT to show me these invisible creatures.

SWT will probably post here soon with some scientific blah blah about how i'm mis-informed and it's all for the long term effect . Yet they refuse to join me at these sites ,(recently managed and managed years ago) refuse to acknowledge the destruction of hibernacula or deaths of reptiles during work.

I am more than prepared to be proven wrong, but I won't be. Pirbright above is devoid of all life, as is Bisley, The areas mentioned at Ash Ranges ect ect and many many more.

[maccyd82]

This is an intersting thread.

I agree with eeyore though, there are planty of other factors involved that could contribute to a decline in reptile populations. The Thames basin heaths areas are all urban fringe, areas of isolated habitat which recieve large numbers of visitors.

Certainly the last picture you posted of Brockwood End at Pirbright the area of suitable habitat looks to be very small and isolated, with the railway to the north, road to the west, and no doubt lots of houses too. Id say that any reptile population in such an area doesnt have much of a chance, management or not. There is no opportunty for dispersal, and only room for a small population in a small area.

Still that doesnt explain why rangers would be destroying hibernacula that just seems mad, especially when youre pointing things out to them.

I wonder what more could be done to get the message through to them? It difficult though, because they are on th site everyday and so know it well, but you have been there longer and have more information dating back longer than they will have been there for.

You must have a lot of data have you thought about using it for some research, giving it to a MSc student or somthing?

[maccyd82]

Another thought - if you point out where hibernacula are, they then buldoze it and kill reptiles that would be an offence under Sch 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act.

Oh dear SWT youd better start listening to these people!