Calcareous grassland restoration

[Matthew Arnold]

Looks like that fire will smoulder for a few days yet.

[odd_bird]

Looks like that fire will smoulder for a few days yet.

yeah...wet grass..not the most exciting burning material...

[Matthew Arnold]

LOL. We had a monster today in our fire pit. Started it at lunch and we burnt about 8 ton of brash within 5 hours. all hand dragged. Had some lovely smoky leylandii and a bit of rhody, laurel and yew to burn too.

[Matthew Arnold]

Here are some pics of Cowslips taken on the Milldown. Most of the Cowslips were buried under brambles and scrub and its only come to light just how many there are.

[Fungus]

We work on the ecologist spec as it is easier to follow. E.g. Year 1 - Remove Gorse. Year 2 - Control Gorse. Year 3 - same as year 2, etc,etc,etc

 

Matt,

Will the restored grasslands (also) be monitered on the (re)occurence of calcareous grassland macrofungi, such as Hygrocybe, Dermoloma, Entoloma, Clavulinopsis, Trichoglossum, Geoglossum and Thuemenidium species ?

[Matthew Arnold]

Did a very quick wildflower survey on a piece of land we cleared of trees about 5 years ago. It was bare soil with lots of stumps so we had a digger come in and remove the stumps and do a light scrap on the top surface to remove bramble and nettle rhizomes. Best find to date is Common Broomrape. It is a parasitic plant completely lacking in chlorophyll that feeds on clovers and other legumes.

[Matthew Arnold]

This little plant is called Red Bartsia(Odontites verna) is found in abundance on Milldown and Preetz Way. It is semi-parasitic on grasses. There is a very rare bee called Melitta tricincta. It feeds souly on Red Bartsia and nothing else.

[Matthew Arnold]

Here are some before and after shots of a nature reserve we have just taken on. It hasnt been cleared for atleast 3 years. We had two Stihl FS 450's with triblade heads cutting the material. We left the patch behind the trees and the Hemlock patch for invertebrates to go to as we had taken about 2/3 of the grass and nettles out. We also put two tins down on the cut grass to see if we have any more reptiles.

[Matthew Arnold]

Baled hay at lunchtime. Lost 5 bales to oiks setting fire to them. Still got 46 out of the field.

[janey]

I was up in the Chilterns today and the chalk grassland flora is very different to what I'm more used to here in London, even though it's only a few miles away.