RAYMOND BROWN ECOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT EXTENSION TO BRICKWORTH QUARRY _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ MINERALS AND RECYCLING LTD APPENDIX 1: SITES DATA 1. County Wildlife Sites A large ancient woodland site much altered by SU211 Cheyney's commercial forestry, includes mainly Broadleaved 236 Wood 51.44 broadleaved planting with some conifer. woodland SU245 Whiteparish Neutral 227 Meadow 1.26 A very small area of damp meadow. grassland SU243 A large block of ancient woodland, largely Broadleaved 214 The Earldoms 35.77 replanted with conifers and broadleaves. woodland SU241 A small stand of conifer plantation on an ancient Conifer 218 White's Copse 3.79 site. woodland SU236 A small area of ancient woodland entirely Conifer 216 Ivory Copse 4.8 planted with conifers. woodland A small block of plantation within a large ancient SU232 woodland site, surrounded by conifer and Neutral 214 Thorn's Copse 5.09 recently cleared. grassland SU232 An ancient woodland site, now almost entirely Mixed 218 Painter's Copse 17.61 coniferised. woodland An ancient woodland site extensively planted SU226 with conifer but retaining scattered Oak Mixed 215 East Copse 16.26 standards. woodland Species-rich woodland, consisting mainly of SU222 mature oak standards over unmanaged hazel Broadleaved 215 Wall Copse 9.93 coppice of varying density. woodland SU233 Lowden's An ancient woodland site margely replanted with Conifer 225 Copse 20.18 conifer. woodland SU225 Sandland/Goos Conifer 230 e Eye Copse 16.85 Conifer plantation. woodland SU219 An ancient woodland site with plantations of Broadleaved 224 Hanghill Copse 7.05 native broadleaves and conifer. woodland SU210 Broadleaved 228 Langford Copse 13.46 Ancient woodland site replanted with conifers. woodland Ancient semi-natural broadleaved woodland, SU208 mostly derelict hazel coppice with oak and ash Broadleaved 215 Grove Copse 17.76 standards. woodland SU218 Shearwood A stand of ancient semi-natural broadleaved Broadleaved 207 Copse 24.49 woodland with some replanting. woodland SU215 New House Fen, marsh 213 Meadows 1.71 Two small parcels of unmanaged fen. and swamp _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ - 1.1 - WARD ASSOCIATES RAYMOND BROWN AGGREGATES ECOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT EXTENSION TO BRICKWORTH QUARRY _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. National and International Wildlife Sites SSSI SU255 223 The site comprises an extensive area of ancient semi-natural woodland. It is White-parish predominantly a beechwood with pedunculate oak and ash but also exhibits a Common large number of other woodland types. It supports an exceptionally diverse woodland flora and some uncommon butterfly species including one of nationally restricted distribution. Lying on London Clay, the soils are generally acidic and a network of streams produces locally wet conditions. Until the 1950s much of the wood was cattle grazed wood-pasture. Large beeches, a tree favoured by wood pasture management, are spread throughout this area, including some old pollards. Beech is also prominent in the regeneration which followed the cessation of grazing. The adjacent Banke’s Copse and parts of Broadlands Copse were coppice and high forest and represent a number of other woodland stand types in which beech is scarce. Further woodland types occur, including oak and ash, some with maple, and alder stands along certain stream sides. Several of the woodland types occurring on the site are rare and considered vulnerable to changes from forestry practice. Streams, with meanders, pools and riffles, support wetland species such as marsh marigold Caltha palustris, hemlock water-dropwort Oenanthe crocata, lesser spearwort Ranunculus flammula and water avens Geum rivale. A small section of ride supports heathy vegetation including heather Calluna vulgaris, broom Cytisus scoparius, pill sedge Carex pilulifera, heath bedstraw Galium saxatile and bilberry Vaccinium myrtillus. SU269 072 The New Forest embraces the largest area of “unsown” vegetation in lowland The New England and includes the representation on a large scale of habitat formations Forest formerly common but now fragmented and rare in lowland western Europe. They include lowland heath, valley and seepage step mire, or fen, and ancient pasture woodland, including riparian and bog woodland. Nowhere else do these habitats occur in combination and on so large a scale. There are about 4,600 hectares of pasture woodland and scrub dominated by oak, beech and holly; 11,800 hectares of heathland and associated grassland; 3,300 hectares of wet heath and valley mire-fen and also 8,400 hectares of plantations dating from various periods since the early 18th century. Within this matrix of habitats are a range of acid to neutral grasslands where the vegetation owes much to the local geology and continuous grazing, a situation which is uncommon in lowland England. Scattered around the New Forest and throughout the small pockets of enclosed farmland are a series of unimproved meadows which have similarities with these Open Forest grasslands. A network of small streams draining the system form an unusual community which results from the combination of nutrient-poor, acid waters and outcrops of neutral enriched soils. There are many ponds of varying sizes and water chemistry including several ephemeral ponds. This wide range of habitats support an assemblage of nationally rare and scarce plants and a nationally important assemblage of rare and scarce invertebrates. The area supports internationally important breeding populations of certain bird species and the wintering population of another as well as an assemblage of birds associated with specific habitats such as old woodland or wetlands. Within the New Forest there are seven sites which are of special geological or physiographic interest including valley mires, the headwaters of the Highland Water, stream sections with exposures of fossil-bearing strata and a gravel pit rich in palaeolithic artefacts. Soils are mainly acid, poor in nutrients, susceptible to leaching and only slowly permeable. Locally, however, there are enriched areas such as the exposed Headon Beds in the south which support relatively species-rich grassland or mire floras. The Forest streams, mires and abundant wet flushes along slope springlines help to create a humid microclimate which, in the woodlands in particular, provides the right _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ - 1.2 - WARD ASSOCIATES RAYMOND BROWN AGGREGATES ECOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT EXTENSION TO BRICKWORTH QUARRY _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ conditions for epiphytic lichens, bryophytes and ferns, a situation which has become rare elsewhere. The unenclosed woodlands are dominated by oak and beech in varying proportions. The heathlands, including grass heaths and acid grasslands comprise a series of plant communities, the composition of which is related to soil structure and permeability and the effects of grazing. The humid heath on slowly permeable and often seasonally waterlogged soils is spatially dominant here although only recognised as a transitional community elsewhere. Within the heathland mosaic, on pockets of richer soils, acid grassland occurs. These areas can change from grass to heath depending on the grazing intensity. The more neutral grasslands known locally as “lawns” occur as linear features following many of the small streams, roadside verges around settlements – village greens, and as glades in association with pasture woodland. The unimproved meadows in and around the Forest have similarities with the acid to neutral grasslands within the Open Forest. The frequent spring-lines and infertility of the soils have hindered agricultural improvement and these meadow communities are now rare or scarce in England. The main vegetation types are herb-rich, permanent pastures on the drier brown earths and stagno- gleys and a complex range of wet acid grasslands on gleys and peats. The Forest contains about 90 clearly separable valley mires, or fen, within about 20 different valley systems. SU231 207 This extensive tract of ancient forest on acid clays, locally overlain by sands and Langley gravels, provides a valuable area for comparison with the nearby New Forest. It Wood and appears to have had no continuous history of grazing or coppicing, and to have Homans been modified by man to a lesser degree than most woodland in lowland Copse England. Most of the area is unbroken oak high forest Quercus petraea and Q. robur but there is a very large range of woodland stand-types which reflect variation in soils and drainage. This has produced an exceptionally rich and varied woodland, both structurally and botanically. The woodland is crossed by four streams, fed by springs where clay outcrops beneath permeable drift soils and the valley and flushed areas are dominated by alder. SAC/NNNR SU269073 The New Forest embraces the largest area of ‘unsown’ vegetation in lowland England The New and includes the representation on a large scale of habitats formerly common but now Forest fragmented and rare in lowland western Europe. The intimate mosaic of habitats owes much to the local geology and traditional commoning grazing system, a situation which