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Did you notice in late summer that large parts of the heather on Sullington Warren were not purple with flower but a reddish brown? This was the result of a massive heather beetle infestation of this section of the Warren.

The larva of the beetle is found feeding on the leaves, stem and bark of heather plants from June through until early September. If the number of larvae are very high this can result in the heather being killed and this is what happened on parts of Sullington Warren last summer.

Recovery plan

Charlie Cain, our National Trust Area Ranger, has developed a plan to tackle the heather beetle infestation and regenerate the heather.  He has asked Sandgate Conservation Society to help him let local people know about the plan so that they understand why the heather beds are being managed in such a seemingly destructive way and what they can do to help the heather restoration.

In late summer/autumn last year the National Trust employed a contractor to cut wide strips through the most badly affected areas. The cuttings from these areas were pilled into a large heap in the hope that any adult beetle collected as part of the mowing operation would be contained and killed with the heap, to reduce the risk of a massive infestation of other parts of the site in the following year.

These mowed strips were cut in such a manner as to leave “living room carpet” sized patches of uncut dead heather stems. The National Trust intents burning off these patches, one by one, this winter before the heather comes back into active growth. They are doing them one by one to avoid the risk of the fires getting out of control and threatening the unique ecology of the rest of the site.

Burning operation – why and when?

The National Trust feels this burning will have two advantages for the site:

• Heather seed needs light to hit the mineral soil surface to stimulate germination. The seed is extremely fire tolerant so the seed bank within the soil will be unaffected by the burning but after the burning it will be exposed to the light to encourage good germination rates in the spring.
• The remaining heather beetle population in the affected areas will, at this time of year, be an adult beetle hibernating under the moss layer where the larva lived and fed. Burning these areas has the potential to reduce the number of adults that will survive the winter and thereby reduce the risk to the remaining heather on the site next summer.

The beetles come out of hibernation in mid-February to March when the mean temperature is above 9°C, so it is important that this burning operation is carried out before then, if possible, to have the best chance of controlling the heather beetle population.  Studies have also shown that regeneration from burned heather plant is much greater if the operation takes place before the plants try to flourish in the spring.

Where is this happening?

If you enter the Warren from the Heather Way gate and walk straight on towards The Green the affected area is to you left.  (If you enter from Woodpecker Lane it is the area on your right, though there has also been some mowing carried out on the area on the left).

The area to your right, when entering via Heather Way, was attacked by heather beetle in the same way eight or nine years ago.  The National Trust have been doing lots of bits of work over the last six or seven years to re-establish carpets of heather as opposed to the wavy hair grass and Festuca carpets that colonised this area after that infestation. The restoration of this area has mainly been the manual removal of moss, carried out by volunteers, to expose dormant heather seeds to light to stimulate heather seed germination and regrowth.  The hope is that the burning operation will re-establish a heather carpet much more quickly over the areas that were killed last summer than has been achieved on this section, and with less back-breaking effort!

What you can do to help?

The photograph shows what Sullington Warren looked like in August 2010 before the heather beetle infestation.  This is what the National Trust is aiming to get the heather beds looking like again.  All of us who use and enjoy Sullington Warren can help.

Please do not walk across the heather beds or encourage your dogs to run into them.  There are plenty of obvious paths around the heather beds, there are none across them.  Walking across the heather can damage the vegetation, including recovering heather plants, disturb the wildlife (many invertebrates and reptiles, including adders live there – there is also the potential for ground-nesting birds in the spring if the areas were left undisturbed) and cause soil erosion.

Also, there is some evidence that increased soil fertility is exacerbating the heather beetle problem by producing heather growth that the heather beetle larvae finds more nutritious.  Increased nitrogen in the soil also encourages vegetation that competes with heather such as grasses and brambles.  The major source of excessive nitrogen in the soils at Sullington Warren is from dog fouling.  It is really important that dog waste on Sullington Warren is disposed of properly in a waste bin. There are a number of dog waste bins around the Warren including one just a short distance away from the heather beds around The Green, at the Woodpecker Lane entrance.

Over the next few months we will be coppicing and cutting back some of the encroaching trees and shrubs along the paths and fire ride on the Thakeham Road side of the the Warren.

Without grazing by wild herbivores or livestock the process of natural succession means that eventually dense trees and shrubs take over, reducing the variation in habitats that support the widest range of species.  Also, as the trees and shrubs grow close together they grow ‘leggy’ as they compete with each other to reach the light.

By cutting back the trees and shrubs not only are the paths opened up to improve access but also areas of heath can be linked up.   Cutting back a deciduous tree or shrub like holly does not kill it but rather rejuvenates it and creates a bushier plant as it throws up multiple stems from its roots.  These bushier plants provide another habitat, such as nesting sites for some birds.  In the meantime the extra light reaching the ground stimulates the growth of other plants, previously suppressed by the low light levels, which attract butterflies and other insects and which in turn provide food for other species such as birds and bats.

On Saturday we started to clear along the path behind Heatherlands.  As you can see some fairly substantial trees were taken down – these are probably as big as we can fell using hand saws.

Shifting the larger trees usually required some team-work

The small branches and twiggy material, or brash, was burnt – see previous post for an explanation of why we burn.

You can see that the bonfire is contained off the ground in a tray which is standing on corrugated iron sheets.  This is to prevent the ground catching fire, though with the amount of rain recently that seemed unlikely.

As the year moves into autumn and winter you will see that on some of our conservation mornings we will have a bonfire.

In the autumn and winter months our conservation work often includes cutting down small trees, coppicing and cutting back shrubs. This creates a lot of woody waste material which we need to dispose of somehow.  Everyone loves a bonfire but with concerns about greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions why do we burn it?

There are only 3 realistic options for us on the sites we work on.

Pile it up and leave it to rot down

Over time this will still result in the release of carbon into the atmosphere, plus some methane which is a worse GHG. It is true that some carbon will be kept in the wood that breaks down into organic matter in the soil but we do not want this on the heathland areas which need shallow, impoverished soil. At Sandgate Park, where there are areas where piles could be left, much of our shrub clearance work involves cutting back of the invasive and fast growing Rhododendron ponticum. The leaves and stems of this shrub decompose slowly as the wood and leaves do not attract invertebrates, such as woodlice, worms, beetles, etc., that eat dead wood and leaves, so we would soon have too many piles of cut material which would detract from the attractiveness of the area and we would become short of space for any more.

Chipping

This has similar issues as leaving the material to rot down plus any chipper would almost certainly need to be petrol or diesel driven and so add to GHG emissions.

Burning

Most of the carbon is released back into the atmosphere, but no methane is produced.

Burning is not the perfect answer but is often the best one available to us, especially where our objective is to maintain and expand our very rare heathland habitats. In your own gardens the other options are usually better choices as they:

• keep precious organic matter in your garden,
• can be used to provide habitat piles to attract birds, reptiles, amphibians and mammals, such as hedgehogs, into your garden, and
• are less likely to cause annoyance to your neighbours due to smoke and smell.

Alternatively you can subscribe to the council’s green waste collection.

If you want to help on one of our conservation mornings please see our programme here or email sandgate.conservation@gmail.com. Tools, gloves and refreshments are provided.

Part of the crowdfunding process included the production of an impact report to inform the project backers and others about the success of the project.  It also provides a facility for project backers to complete a survey about what they feel about the project.

The report can be found here

 

We are pleased to be able to tell you that the the bridge and the approaching footpaths have been completed.

There is a level footpath running a short distance through the woods from the gate on Badgers Holt to the bridge and on the other side of the bridge a gently rising footpath to join the path on the quarry side of the park.

The main motivation for getting the bridge and footpaths in place was to improve accessibility and we are gratified by the comments we have been getting from people about what a positive difference the new bridge and footpaths have made to their ability to enjoy the park.  It is now easy for people using mobility scooters to cross the stream.

We would love to hear from people about what they think about the new bridge and footpaths.  Email us on sandgate.conservation@gmail.com or send us a message us on Facebook – www.facebook.com/SandgateConservation.

The works have obviously left some marks on the landscape, for example where soil has been moved to create the footpaths and piled up along the side of the paths, but in time the vegetation will grow and hide the soil.  Also,  it is hoped that with the new footpath in place people will avoid walking across the bluebell and wild daffodil areas and these will regenerate in time.  We plan to clear the stream of the logs and other debris that was used as a makeshift bridge now that it is no longer needed.

Over the next few weeks and months people should also see some other changes, such as a signage board and a dog poo bin, for the quarry area of the park.

As we move into mid summer the woods have become quieter as bird nesting tails off.  The heather is flowering and is looking reasonably good considering the die-off due to drought last year.  The wet heath pond looks much better now that the fence has been removed from around it.  Fungi are already starting to appear here and there.

The quarry area of the park is still full of wildlife activity.  The meadows are a mix of wild flowers and grasses that are attracting a wide variety of insects including a variety of butterflies.  The quarry is a regular nesting site for sand martins and the birds can be seen swooping over the grassy areas.

Please avoid creating new paths across the meadows as this results in fragmentation which significantly degrades it as a wildlife habitat and causes disturbance to the wildlife that lives in it.  Also, keeping to the footpaths greatly reduces the risk of you and your dog picking up ticks that could carry Lyme disease.  The footpaths around and through the meadows are clearly defined as they are finished in yellow Fittleworth stone (there are some tracks for infrequent use by maintenance vehicles – these are not intended to be used general footpaths) and the area can be fully enjoyed from the footpaths.

In our last update on the bridge, just over 2 weeks ago, we reported on the start of the work to build the bridge.  The contractor had marked the trees that needed to be taken out for the new path and the Sandgate Conservation Society volunteers had spent a work morning removing the trees.

Regular visitors to Sandgate Park would have seen that within a few days the contractor had cleared away the felled logs, removed the tree stumps and dug out the new path, and created the concrete foundations for the bridge.

A few days ago we were told that the bridge was at the stage where we could usefully help to finish work on it.

You can see the new path on the Cemex quarry side has been completed and it now has a gentle slope through the woods to the bridge.

The bridge crosses the stream at a point where its banks are level so that there is step-less access to the bridge from the paths.

The bridge is made from durable oak and it is build on top of two steel beams that span the gap – it is built to last.

The bridge still needed anti-slip strips and hand-rails so on Tuesday morning the ‘crew’ gathered for work.  Sandgate Conservation Society volunteers were joined by Horsham District Council Parks and Countryside staff.  Anna Worthington-Leese, Chairman of Storrington and Sullington Parish Council came along to check out progress.

Fixing the anti-slip strips.  Two people screwing on the strips, one person sorting out the screws and one person as the obligatory ‘foreman’!

 

 

Meanwhile, in another part of the woods, the redundant gate was removed.

While this activity was going on the contractor was continuing work on the paths.  A new path is being created from the new bridge to the gate onto Badgers Holt.  This will provide accessible access to the area of Sandgate Park from the eastern end of the park.  It is hoped that park users will stick to this new path so that the native bluebells and wild daffodils are not trampled.

We think you will agree that the bridge looks just right for the woodland setting and it meets all expectations.

A big thank-you to all of you who helped make this happen by donating to the bridge fund.