Bury Parish Council have recently received the following report from our local SDNPA ranger Dominic Sunderland, outlining his proposals for vegetation management of Bury’s nature sites using his volunteers:
I visited Pill Pond today and there was good diversity and structure of species in the lower portion of the site. Further upstream in the main glade, there is a dominance of grass species. A hard cut and rake off will reduce this nutrient level – and a few modest scrapes to slightly disturb the soil will break up the dominance of the grasses and provide opportunities for seed dispersal and successful germination. Simply put, we would pretend to be cows!
Pill Pond:
- Brush cut and rake off main glade
- Sympathetic brush cutting of lower bank
- A few scrapes and supplementary seeding
I quite like all the scrubby regen’ at the Sand Pit. It will be providing a good resource for many species. Having this structure is all the more important because Lords Piece is quite ‘unscrubby’, as it is mechanically managed quite intensely for field crickets. Unfortunately, none of our recordings there this year have shown any sign of Sand Martins actively using the site.
Bury Sand Pit:
- Brush cut access path
- Clear bracken from shading out the valuable ground flora
- Cut & treat rhododendron
- Potential scrub ‘coppicing’ – cutting back without the intention of removing completely. This is to increase age structure of scrub on site.
I am very happy to dedicate 3 days of my (& our lovely assistant rangers & volunteers!) time over winter to deliver these suggestions. So far, I have pencilled in Wednesday, September 11th for Pill Pond (with volunteers), and Monday, October 7th for the Sand Pit (with colleagues). Both Pill Pond & the Sand Pit are ecologically sensitive sites, so it’s important to manage them delicately.
