Cheshire Roadside Verge Survey Volume I: Report and Recommendations October 1995 NHl CHESHIRE->ECOLOGICAL SERVICES Volume I: Report and Recommendations October 1995 CHESHIRE ^ECOLOGICAL SERVICES CHESHIRE ROADSIDE VERGE SURVEY 1995 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 4 ROADSIDE VERGES - AN OVERVIEW Threats to Roadside Verges 5 Importance of Roadside Verges 6 ORIGINAL CONCEPT 7 METHODOLOGY 7 CRITERIA 8 EXISTING ROADSIDE VERGE MAINTENANCE REGIME 8 VERGES IDENTIFIED DURING 10 CHESTER CITY COUNCILS NATURE CONSERVATION AUDIT RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 11 Floristic interest 11 Boundaries 13 Butterflies in Roadside Verges 13 Birds on Verges 14 Reptiles and Amphibians 14 NEW VERGES IDENTIFIED 16 MANAGEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS 18 SUMMARY OF ROADSIDE VERGES OF 20 NATURE CONSERVATION IMPORTANCE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE 24 MONITORING AND DESIGNATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 26 REFERENCES 27 LIST OF TABLES Table I: 9 Rural Mowing Regimes. Table II: 10 Areas of Nature Conservation Value Identified in Chester City Councils Nature Conservation Audit. Table HI: 10 Sites of Nature Conservation Importance Identified in Chester City Council's Nature Conservation Audit Table IV: 13 , Cheshire Roadside Verges Suspected to hold MG5 Communities ) Table V: 14 Butterfly Species seen and their foodplants r Table VI: 16 , New Roadside Verges of Nature Conservation Importance Identified within Congleton Borough Council. r \ Table VH: 17 New Roadside Verges of Nature Conservation T Importance Identified within the Peak Park, l Table VEft: 20 r Summary of Roadside Verges of Nature Conservation u Importance in Cheshire. _ Table IX: 26 U Recommendation for Notification of SBI and RVNR. m r LIST OF FIGURES • r Figure I: 12 U Cross-section Through Typical Roadside Verge. P Figure II: 15 t» Distribution of Roadside Verges by 10 km squares. .P Figure JH: 20 Recommended Mowing Regimes for Roadside Verges. P fa. ™ LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix I: 27 Nationally Important Verges in Cheshire Identified in 1973 Appendix II: 28 Existing Roadside Verge SBI's Appendix HI: 29 English Names of Plant Species Identified during the Survey Appendix IV: 33 Butterfly Species Observed During the Course of the Survey Appendix V: 34 Bird Species Observed During the Course of the Survey Appendix VI: 35 Sample Completed Road Verge Survey Form Appendix VH: 36 Mowing Regime Questionnaire m •H P © Cheshire Ecological Services Cheshire Roadside Verge Survey 1995 INTRODUCTION Most of the natural vegetation of Cheshire has been eroded over the centuries to make way for agriculture, housing, industry and roads. Roadside verges, particularly those alongside minor and unclassified roads, often represent the last remaining fragments of habitats which have largely vanished. Consequently they can be important reservoirs for a wide range of species of plants and animals. There are approximately 3,200 kilometres (2,000 miles) of roads in Cheshire; these offer immense potential for the management of their verges as wildlife corridors and grassland reserves. Some verges already receive sympathetic management as a result of the 1973 Roadside Verge Survey conducted by members of the (then) Cheshire Conservation Trust. At this time the County Council signed the Royal Society for Nature Conservation's (RSNC) Roadside Charter. This survey has not been reviewed in recent years, so the extent or value of this management has not been analysed. In the 1973 survey 90 Roadside Verges of Nature Conservation Importance (RVNCI) were identified and the County Council notified of their locations1. Eight of these verges had been recognised as being of national conservation importance by the Biological Records Centre in 1969. See Appendix I for a full list. In late 1994 The Wildlife Trusts Partnership launched their Roadside Verge Report, the result of consultations with Wildlife Trusts throughout the UK and their involvement with the management of roadside verges. When completing the consultation document for the report it was apparent that the Cheshire Wildlife Trust held very little data on the subject. This report sets out to rectify the lack of up to date knowledge. The importance of Roadside Verges has been identified by the Cheshire County Council and Cheshire Wildlife Trust since 1984 by the inclusion of some roadside verges as Sites of Biological Importance (SBI). Details of roadside verges that are SBI's are contained in Appendix II. Although this offers no statutory protection, it does highlight the importance of the verge and can offer some protection through the planning process. The aims of the 1995 survey were threefold; • To review the 1973 list of Roadside Verges of Nature Conservation Importance • To revise and update the 1973 list • To prepare a working document for use by the Highways Department of the Cheshire County Council Engineering Department on the management of roadside verges Funding for the project was secured from the Engineers section of Cheshire County Council, Peak Park Joint Planning Board, Congleton Borough Council and Warrington Borough Council. 1JMMay(1974); Co-operation for Conservation of'Rural RoadVerges. ITE. © Cheshire Ecological Services Cheshire Roadside Verge Survey 1995 ROADSIDE VERGES - AN OVERVIEW The image of a roadside verge conjures up visions of a wide flowery sward with the occasional mature tree backed by a hedge - or does it? Nationwide, verges vary from sunken lanes with steep banks, known as holloways, to wide droves and may be bounded by hedges, dry-stone walls or ditches all as stock- proof boundaries. The presence of holloways can indicate a very old road, the sunken lanes provide shelter to travellers from the sun in summer and more hostile elements during the winter months; their verge/banks were usually lined with trees, their roots exposed with cranesbills and ferns growing in the shaded areas. One or two holloways exist in Cheshire, for example Birtles Lane near Over Alderley. Many of these old roads can be traced on ancient maps. Quite often roads or droves would become wider, especially over common land, narrowing off as it passed off the common. With the advent of tarmac and metalled roads, these wider roads would be reduced in width to about a third of their former size and hence the concept of roadside verges came into being. Grass verges then became an important feature, especially in areas where the roads became muddy in wet weather - they provide drier areas for passing on, or where pedestrians could stand out of the way of passing wagons and carts, they were also used for grazing livestock. In many parishes a 'lengthman' was employed to keep the coarser vegetation under control and so led to a r richer and varied wildlife due to the intensive management. Threats f In recent years many verges have lost some of their original value for a variety of > reasons: • They are no longer grazed by livestock and have become scrubbed over. ** • Some are cut several times a year not allowing the wildflowers to develop and set seed, so encouraging the courser grasses. • They have suffered from the tipping of: "• • household waste, • garden refuse, • builders refuse. * • Road construction materials are stockpiled on them. m • In some cases, particularly adjacent to public footpaths, the verges have been , eroded by vehicles. • They have been lost by road widening or re-alignment. p • Cuttings from mowing left on the verges resulting in increased nitrates in the soil m which encourages coarser species. • Inadequate reinstatement after maintenance work or installation of services. ^ • Deposit of dredgings after cleaning out of roadside ditches. •> These threats to our verges have resulted in the loss of their floristic interest and w diversity, no longer providing 'green corridors' connecting fragmented woodland, and * grasslands. © Cheshire Ecological Services Cheshire Roadside Verge Survey 1995 Importance of roadside verges Despite the various threats to verges, many have survived to provide some excellent examples of our varied flora and fauna. Wide verges can offer several different habitats, from short regularly mown areas next to the road, through taller courses grasses to a hedgerow or field boundary at the rear. Some verges may also contain ponds offering another habitat. Nationally over 850 species of wildflower have been recorded on them, of which 35 are nationally rare species. They also provide habitat for many of our butterflies and moths, birds, mammals and reptiles. Many species of birds feed on the seeds of teasel and thistles (Cirsium spp.) in the autumn months. Verges managed for nature conservation interests therefore supply food for species such as Goldfinch and Greenfinch. This diversity of grasses and herbs provide a habitat that is great interest both botanically and aesthetically. Verges provide green corridors between adjacent parcels of woodland, grassland and other habitats and act as reservoirs for plants and animals from which colonisation of other areas can occur. This corridor effect has recently been shown by Vermeulen 2. Poorly managed verges can also cause problems for some species. A verge which is left unmanaged, allowing the vegetation to grow tall close to the road can provide suitable hunting ground for species such as the Barn Owl. This causes a problem in that owls hunting along the road get drawn into the path of oncoming vehicles, only to be killed or maimed. If a short sward is maintained in areas where Barn Owls are known to occur, then they will be restricted to hunting over the rear of the verge. It is therefore important that the presence (or absence) of Barn Owls in an area is known about prior to a mowing regime being recommended / established. With sympathetic management, many of these verges can become havens for many species, becoming Roadside Verge Nature Reserves, as has already happened in several counties including Essex, Lincolnshire, Lancashire and Worcestershire - will Cheshire be next? 2HJW Vermeulen (1994): Corridor function of a road verge for dispersal of stenotopic heathalnd ground beetles Carabidae. Biological Conservation ,69(3), 339- 349 © Cheshire Ecological Services Cheshire Roadside Verge Survey 1995 ORIGINAL CONCEPT Initially it had been hoped that local Parish Councils would be involved with the project.