help with habitat management with Bristol Lizard orchid site

[lizard orchid]

Dear All,
I am planning to do habitat management on a site for Lizard Orchid near Bristol this weekend 23rd/24th but most of the work will be on the Saturday. The various jobs involved include raking off cut vegetation, clearing scrub. Bring your own tools such as rakes, loppers and gloves if you have them but I will have some spare tools people can use with me. Anyone can stay as long as they want. Anyone interested then please let me know but of course I will not be at a computer over the weekend.

Brian Laney, Northamptonshire.

[animartco]

Originally Posted by lizard orchid

Dear All,
I am planning to do habitat management on a site for Lizard Orchid near Bristol this weekend 23rd/24th but most of the work will be on the Saturday. The various jobs involved include raking off cut vegetation, clearing scrub. Bring your own tools such as rakes, loppers and gloves if you have them but I will have some spare tools people can use with me. Anyone can stay as long as they want. Anyone interested then please let me know but of course I will not be at a computer over the weekend.

Brian Laney, Northamptonshire.

Please do not kill off our rare orchids! Disturbance to orchids KILLS. Orchids have a very subtle and tenuous relation to a mould or fungus which grows in the soil around them. Raking would remove a large part of this and kill the orchids. ONE man only should go in and remove brambles or other things that might smother them. That is the ONLY management they need. I do not understand the need for raking? Orchid patches should never be strimmed, and if tree branches or grass needs to be cut, hand tools should be used and the resulting debris AND ONLY THE RESULTING DEBRIS should be carefully removed by hand. Boys and their toys are fast reducing our environment to rubble. I think a lot of people don't realise that detritus is essential cover for most wild plants and animals. Bare soil is not NORMAL!

[aeshna5]

Originally Posted by animartco

Please do not kill off our rare orchids! Disturbance to orchids KILLS. Orchids have a very subtle and tenuous relation to a mould or fungus which grows in the soil around them. Raking would remove a large part of this and kill the orchids. ONE man only should go in and remove brambles or other things that might smother them. That is the ONLY management they need. I do not understand the need for raking? Orchid patches should never be strimmed, and if tree branches or grass needs to be cut, hand tools should be used and the resulting debris AND ONLY THE RESULTING DEBRIS should be carefully removed by hand. Boys and their toys are fast reducing our environment to rubble. I think a lot of people don't realise that detritus is essential cover for most wild plants and animals. Bare soil is not NORMAL!

I think Lizard Orchid has far more practical knowledge of this and other species conversation than you + has been actively involved in this conservation for some years. I know you mean well but he knows what he's doing!

[the young hunter]

I strongly agree with aeshna5. I think Brian knows what he's doing and infact the lizard orchid (and particularly this site) benefits from scrub clearance in order to reduce competition from plants shading them out. You are right in the sense that many orchid species favour undisturbed habitats, like the Green-winged orchid for example.

Admire your enthusiasm for the protection of orchids nonetheless.

Please do some more research in future.

Mike

[Dogghound]

Originally Posted by animartco

Please do not kill off our rare orchids! Disturbance to orchids KILLS.

Lack of disturbance is a far greater problem here, once succession starts to occur hard grasses and overdominant species like bramble outcompete less vigorous species like orchids which results in them disappearing

Originally Posted by animartco

That is the ONLY management they need. I do not understand the need for raking? Orchid patches should never be strimmed, and if tree branches or grass needs to be cut, hand tools should be used and the resulting debris AND ONLY THE RESULTING DEBRIS should be carefully removed by hand.

A group is going to get the job done far more efficiently and in less time with less cost, its not practical or necessary for one person to do it.

Originally Posted by animartco

Boys and their toys are fast reducing our environment to rubble. I think a lot of people don't realise that detritus is essential cover for most wild plants and animals. Bare soil is not NORMAL!

Bare soil is quite normal, particularly in areas prone to land slips, flooding, fires etc and a whole host of plants have developed to live in these areas. In fact some of our rarest species are dependent on bare ground or high levels of disturbance.

[Dorts]

Unless there is very good reason to 'manage' a site, the best advice, especially after a new discovery of a species, is to stand back and observe.

No two Orchid species require the same treatment when it comes to management. Take the advice of experienced botanist's who have observed a particular species over many years and in different habitats.

I agree that Brian will know what work is required and will have taken good advice on this particular site and I wish him well with getting willing workers and look forward to hearing good results from their labours.
Dorts.

[lizard orchid]

Originally Posted by animartco

Please do not kill off our rare orchids! Disturbance to orchids KILLS. Orchids have a very subtle and tenuous relation to a mould or fungus which grows in the soil around them. Raking would remove a large part of this and kill the orchids. ONE man only should go in and remove brambles or other things that might smother them. That is the ONLY management they need. I do not understand the need for raking? Orchid patches should never be strimmed, and if tree branches or grass needs to be cut, hand tools should be used and the resulting debris AND ONLY THE RESULTING DEBRIS should be carefully removed by hand. Boys and their toys are fast reducing our environment to rubble. I think a lot of people don't realise that detritus is essential cover for most wild plants and animals. Bare soil is not NORMAL!

Dear Animartco,
I am not killing off the orchids. I am doing my hardest to save the population at Bristol from local extinction due to scrub and tree encroachment. My management at the site has resulted in the rosettes of Lizard Orchid going up each year. This year it stands at 37. Also the flowering numbers have gone up from 7 in 2009 to 14 in 2010.
Blackthorn scrub has to be cut and removed and so does the rank vegetation once cut. Also there are problems with fallen sycamore leaves swamping even the biggest rosettes so thats another reason for raking to uncover these rosettes as well as lifting tree branches.
Also the management is hardly showing bare soil, however where there is a bit of bare soil and moss a number of new Lizard Orchid rosettes have appeared and I am not strimming the orchid rosettes, I go round them. I do my management for the Lizard Orchid in Feb as I often find new rosettes buried in scrub and these areas then have to be cleared of scrub. If I used hand tools I will be still cutting and raking into the 22 Century so this year has been the first time I had help from two other people for a while.
Please feel fee to have a look at the site in June and see how my management at the site is benefitting other orchid species as well.
I am not having a go at you but explaining what I am doing and how the management is working.
Each rare plant species I am involved with can have different management practices needed but already 10 of the 11 projects I do with rare plants is working very well indeed.

Brian Laney Northamptonshire

[lizard orchid]

And thankyou everyone else for putting up some good comments and also explaining why management has to be done.

Brian Laney Northamptonshire.

[lizard orchid]

I understand the situation with detritus of which is still present on the site and is important.
However ivy is becoming a problem where it is growing along the ground underneath the largest sycamores. The lizard orchid has gone from this section of the embankment and has moved further along with new rosettes turning up in the bare soil and moss underneath the scrub.

Brian Laney Northamptonshire.

[animartco]

Originally Posted by Dorts

Unless there is very good reason to 'manage' a site, the best advice, especially after a new discovery of a species, is to stand back and observe.

No two Orchid species require the same treatment when it comes to management. Take the advice of experienced botanist's who have observed a particular species over many years and in different habitats.

I agree that Brian will know what work is required and will have taken good advice on this particular site and I wish him well with getting willing workers and look forward to hearing good results from their labours.
Dorts.

Hi Dorts, Yes, I am sorry to keep attacking people like this but I do not know how educated any individual site manager is. You say that Brian knows his stuff. I take your word for it and appologies to Brian. I take it the rakes have very long handles so that the helpers can remove cut branches from a distance and do not have to walk on the marked sites where the clumps of orchids actually are?
Of course sites have to be managed to remove the growth of plants that would otherwise outcompete the rare species for space. It is how sensitively this is done that is the issue.
I do not know how much is taught about soil ecology in current courses, but it seems to be very little, judging by the reactions I get when I try to point out just how much damage a man can do simply by walking on the crown of a dormant plant or on any creature hibernating beneath the soil.
It is particularly important with orchids to do site managment work just after the plants have flowered, so that they can be marked and avoided.