Upcoming habitat management work on the trails and on the wooded heath

Upcoming habitat management work on the trails and on the wooded heath

The wooded heath photo by David Andrews

You may notice a few changes when you next visit us at Pulborough Brooks – here’s some information on upcoming habitat management work around the wetland trail and especially on the wooded heath.

Tree safety work

 A recent tree safety inspection, along with the recent storms, has identified a number of vulnerable trees on the reserve that present a safety risk as they are close to visitor trails. Sadly, we’ll need to fell these trees to minimise the risk to our team of staff and volunteers as well as our visitors. This does include some larger trees and it will be a shame to lose them but I’m sure you’ll understand the rationale.

A contractor will be in to do this work over the coming few weeks and, whilst work is being undertaken, there may be temporary path closures. We’ll ensure there is up to date information at the welcome hut so if you’re visiting you can check where we’ll be working that day.

 Wooded heathland – dead hedging and path closures

There are a multitude of unofficial paths and ‘desire lines’ that criss-cross the wooded heathland, particularly around the woodland edge of the heath. We will be starting to block off some of these paths using ‘dead hedges’ made of wood and brash from the tree safety work and from the heathland management where we’ve been removing the colonising birch saplings.

The reasons for doing this are threefold:

• Tree safety. There are a number of dead or decaying trees that overhang some of these paths. Dead and decaying wood, especially standing dead wood, is invaluable to all sorts of wildlife – think rare beetles, roosting bats and Tawny Owls and nesting woodpeckers. By closing some of these paths we can retain some of these trees without compromising the safety of visitors (or our team).

•  Many of the paths are sandy and vulnerable to erosion both through regular use and during heavy rainfall. This applies in particular to the path that runs parallel to the bridleway on the northern side of the tumuli ‘the clump’ where the sandstone outcrop is being severely eroded. By blocking these paths it will allow vegetation to re-establish which helps to bind the looser sandy soil and reduce erosion.

• Habitat protection. Woodland edge is a valuable habitat for wildlife but as new paths and desire lines have developed the woodland has been criss-crossed with numerous routes and there is very little undisturbed habitat. Cutting off some of the routes will provide larger sections of undisturbed woodland and will allow ground vegetation - such as bluebells and honeysuckle – to regenerate and will provide nesting opportunities for woodland birds such as woodpeckers and Spotted Flycatchers.

       The dead hedges themselves provide useful corridors for small mammals to explore the woodland and find food and shelter, and also provide nesting opportunities for birds like Wrens.

Wren by Phil Thornton

We appreciate that some of you may feel that you are being forced to change your favoured route, but the action we’re taking is to support both safety and habitat protection so we hope you’ll understand

The public footpath, bridleway and our permissive trail loop around the wooded heath will remain open.