COMMONS ACT 2006: SECTION 38

PROPOSED WORKS ON IPING AND TROTTON COMMONS, WEST SUSSEX

APPLICATION REFERENCE: COM 749

PROOF OF EVIDENCE OF

MIKE EDWARDS, BSc, F.R.E.S.

FOR SUSSEX WILDLIFE TRUST

SUMMARY

A. I graduated from Leeds University in 1971, obtaining the degree of BSc in Genetics and Zoology. I then taught in West Sussex Schools, moving to the County Advisory Service in 1985, after obtaining a higher diploma in Mathematical Education. I have been a resident of the Midhurst area since 1973. During all this period I have maintained a keen interest in natural history, especially entomology. I am a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society and founding member of the Bees Wasps and Ants Recording Society. I served on the West Sussex County Council Iping Common Local Nature Reserve Committee and was the first voluntary site manager for Stedham Common after the purchase of this site by the Sussex Wildlife Trust in 1985. I currently sit on the Iping and Stedham Advisory Group for the Sussex Wildlife Trust and am a member of the Trust’s Conservation Committee.

B. In 1991 I started work as a specialist in entomological survey and habitat management advice, concentrating on the aculeate Hymenoptera, Diptera and Orthoptera. I have wide experience, accumulated over more than forty years, of the diverse habitats which are occupied by these insects. I was project leader for the Species Recovery Field Cricket Project from 1991 to 2014.

C. Heathland ecosystems are essentially an ‘early colonisation’ stage in vegetation succession, where the mineral nature of the soil tends to maintain a short, and often sparse, vegetation cover, largely because of the lack of nutrients in the top layers of the soil. Nutrients are leached readily to the lower layers of the soil and become out of reach for many shallow-rooted plants. This process creates a warm micro-environment, especially suited to a range of insect species, which may themselves form the food for other organisms. Although heathers and their associated insects are typical of heathlands, the full heathland ecosystem includes many other plants and their associated insects.

1 D. Much heathland management concentrates on maintaining a low-nutrient situation, utilising a number of techniques to do so by interfering with build up of organic material and the succession towards woodland. These include fire, tree removal, scraping and grazing. In the fairly recent past similar activities supported a poor, but viable, life-style for humans. The essence of the process is, however, much more ancient, being a consequence of the interactions of fire, grazing by wild animals and periods of drought on the vegetation of thin, nutrient-poor soils acting over large landscape scales.

E. One management tool which has a high effectiveness in the removal of vegetation, and hence reduction of nutrients, is grazing by larger herbivores in the form of cattle. If applied thoughtfully (a qualification which is applicable to any technique) on a time rotation and with varied intensity grazing animals can increase the spaces available for germination of new individual plants, as well as reducing the height and density (and hence potential nutrient contribution and shading effect) of the existing vegetation.

F. Grazing alone will not provide all the ‘drivers’ required for the maintenance of a heathland habitat; other processes will need to be continued. It is, however, very effective in reducing the rate of vegetation succession of open areas, largely through intensifying the increase in nutrient status under trees, where the stock tend to dung-out, and removing growth from the more open areas.

G. I was professionally involved in English Nature’s Grazing Risk Assessment project, which concluded that, whilst grazing produced effects on vegetation structures and composition which were very difficult to achieve (perhaps not even possible) with other management techniques, it also presented a range of ‘critical points’ where care is needed to ensure that grazing does not harm the species that it seeks to benefit. The results of this project provided information and techniques whereby a heathland manager might assess the ‘risks’ involved and set informed limits on the severity and longevity of impacts.

H. I was also professionally involved in English Nature’s Species Recovery Field Cricket Project, almost completely based on the Western Weald Heaths of Sussex, Hampshire and Surrey. Research has shown that this insect is closely associated with cycles of disturbance and re- colonisation in grasslands; especially, in the northern parts of its European range, those developed over sandy soils. Such acid grasslands are an integral part of heathlands.

I. Re-vegetation of areas of bare ground is fairly rapid, meaning that the insect, which cannot fly, must colonise suitable areas by walking. This means that such areas need to be fairly close to one another, something in the range of 400m maximum in any one year. It has been found that appropriate grazing by larger animals can extend the suitable longevity of an area considerably, whilst, at the same time, influencing the establishment of other suitable areas nearby.

J. Iping Common is an historic site for this extremely rare insect and it has been re-introduced there under the Species Recovery Project, initially with reasonable success, including spreading to new areas within the site. However, this situation has not been maintained and the lack of a

2 suitable modern grazing regime at Iping and Trotton Commons is regarded as the major factor in the decline of this species, to the point where it is virtually extinct at this site.

K. The Silver-studded Blue Butterfly has been associated with Iping and Stedham Commons for as long as I have known them. Its numbers increase after a local fire or deliberate scraping of an area and then slowly die away. This reflects its association with an ant species, without which it cannot survive. Together, these two species require warm conditions and the presence of Bell Heather, both of which are sustained for longer after a fire or ground scraping under a grazing regime.

L. Old maps, aerial photographs, other photographs and the memories of elderly local residents show that Iping and Trotton Commons used to be much more open than it is now and that grazing took place there until some time after World War 2. I have discussed Field Crickets (which are unmistakable, large, insects) with several people whose memories extended back for decades and who remembered them as being present long ago. Given the specific habitat requirements of this species this can only mean that there must have been more short, grazed, vegetation than there is now.

M. I first visited the Commons in 1972, shortly after the completion of laying a gas main from east to west across the commons. The heathers on either side were tall, with very few spaces between them, although the bare and re-vegetating ground of the gas main was of interest as a potential nesting site for wild bees and wasps. However, in July 1976 a very extensive fire took out all but the extreme north-eastern part of the site. The next week all that remained was a vast black blanket, ash from which was subsequently washed by rainfall into drainage lines across the Common. By the spring of 1997 these areas were marked out by lines of dense birch saplings, taking advantage of the increased fertiliser provided by the ash. The general location of much of this Birch growth is still in evidence today, despite extensive management work to reduce the proportion of this plant. Heathers started germinating that summer and the heathland cycle was off again.

3 EVIDENCE

Personal background

1. Mike Edwards graduated from Leeds University in 1971, obtaining the degree of BSc in Genetics and Zoology. He then taught in West Sussex Schools, moving to the County Advisory Service in 1985, after obtaining a higher diploma in Mathematical Education. He has been a resident of the Midhurst area, some 3 miles east of Iping and Trotton Commons, since 1973.

2. During all this period he has maintained a keen interest in natural history, especially entomology. He is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society and founding member of the Bees Wasps and Ants Recording Society. He has served on the West Sussex County Council Iping Common Local Nature Reserve Committee and was the first voluntary site manager for Stedham Common after the purchase of this site by the Sussex Wildlife Trust in 1985. He currently sits on the Iping and Stedham Advisory Group for the Sussex Wildlife Trust and is a member of the Trust’s Conservation Committee.

3. In 1991 he made a career change, setting up as a specialist in entomological survey and habitat management advice. The business was incorporated at the start of 2011 and trades as Edwards Ecological Services Ltd. In this role he has concentrated on the aculeate Hymenoptera, Diptera and Orthoptera, and, to a lesser extent, several other orders. He has a wide experience, accumulated over more than forty years, of the diverse habitats which are occupied by these insects.

4. These habitats range from the semi-natural, through post-industrial sites, to the agricultural. He has carried out ecological projects in the UK, Europe and Australia. He was co-ordinator for the UK Biodiversity Action Plan Aculeate Conservation Group (now Hymettus Ltd.) from 1997 to 2007. He was project leader for the Species Recovery Field Cricket Project from 1991 to 2014.

5. As a development of this role he has become increasingly involved with the management issues associated with the conservation of a wide range of invertebrate groups and is currently developing monitoring and management techniques for these. He has completed contracts for all three National Conservation Agencies, the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (part of NERC), the R.S.P.B., the National Trust, Wildlife Trusts, County and District Councils, Southern Water, Syngenta Crop Protection, Estates, Landscape Architects and Leisure Activity Organisations.

6. This evidence summarises the development of heathland landscapes and my experience in managing and monitoring these, particularly with regard to the insects associated with them.

Heathland vegetation structure and succession

7. Heathland ecosystems are essentially an ‘early colonisation’ stage in vegetation succession, where the mineral nature of the soil tends to maintain a short, and often sparse, vegetation cover, largely because of the lack of nutrients in the top layers of the soil. Nutrients are leached readily to the lower layers of the soil (podsol) and become out of reach for many shallow-rooted

4 plants. This process creates a warm micro-environment, especially suited to a range of insect species, which may themselves form the food for other organisms. Although heathers and their associated insects are typical of heathlands, the full heathland ecosystem includes many other plants and their associated insects.

8. However, the ‘open’ nature of such ground provides many germination opportunities for larger woody plants, as well as dwarf woody plants (heathers) and herbaceous ones. If relatively deep- rooted plants can get established they act as ‘nutrient pumps’ with falling leaves returning nutrients to the upper soil layers and moving soils towards a ‘brown earth’ type. This process is exponential and, once started, can proceed with amazing rapidity.

9. Much heathland management concentrates on maintaining a low-nutrient situation, utilising a number of techniques to do so by interfering with build up of organic material and the succession towards woodland. These include fire, tree removal, scraping and grazing. In the fairly recent past similar activities supported a poor, but viable, life-style for humans. The essence of the process is, however, much more ancient, being a consequence of the interactions of fire, grazing by wild animals and periods of drought on the vegetation of thin, nutrient-poor soils acting over large landscape scales.

Heathland management

10. The desire to maintain examples of such landscapes on a much smaller scale under modern conditions leads to the need for active habitat management.

11. Habitat management attempts to create the conditions under which a desired suite of organisms can exist together. It is impossible to manage for all potential organisms in one geographic location and some organisms will be more favoured than others under particular regimes. An overall management regime which has a variety of management ‘tools’ and timings for the use of these is more likely to produce an overall landscape which supports, perhaps not always ideally, a wider range of organisms.

12. Management techniques themselves interact with year-on-year environmental conditions, such as periods of drought, further increasing the year-by-year diversity of outcomes and the uncertainty inherent in them. The outcomes of different techniques interact with the techniques used subsequently. A good guiding management principle is ‘do not do the same thing in the same place at the same time every year’.

13. One management tool which has a high effectiveness in the removal of vegetation, and hence reduction of nutrients, is grazing by larger herbivores in the form of cattle. If applied thoughtfully (a qualification which is applicable to any technique) on a time rotation and with varied intensity (sometimes known as ‘pulsed’ grazing) grazing animals can increase the spaces available for germination of new individual plants, as well as reducing the height and density (and hence potential nutrient contribution and shading effect) of the existing vegetation.

5 14. As noted above, grazing alone will not provide all the ‘drivers’ required for the maintenance of a heathland habitat; other processes will need to be continued. It is, however, very effective in reducing the rate of vegetation succession of open areas, largely through intensifying the increase in nutrient status under trees, where the stock tend to dung-out, and removing growth from the more open areas. Over long periods of time the relative positions of woodland and open heath tend to change, driven, at least in part, by this dynamic nutrient enrichment/nutrient loss process.

15. Such management takes place under modern conditions, with sites often bounded by roads carrying fast traffic, or farmland with valuable crops. The potential costs, both human and financial, of animals straying off the land to be grazed require that the boundary be secured well. The most practical and secure way of doing this is by a stock-proof boundary fence. Access across this boundary needs to be provided, but this must not compromise the essential purpose of the fence, which is to provide a secure boundary.

Heathland insects

16. Two major projects in which I have taken a leading role and which have very strong relevance to the current submission to fence Iping and Trotton Commons are the Grazing Risk Assessment and the Species Recovery Field Cricket Project.

17. The Grazing Risk Assessment (English Nature Publication No 497) [SWT document no. 32]. This document was the eventual outcome of a series of meetings called by the National Biodiversity Action Plan Aculeate Conservation Group because of concerns amongst the entomological and herpetological community about the negative impacts of some models of grazing being employed on heathland sites throughout the UK.

18. The group involved in its production included Grazing Project members; a range of entomologists, private and professional; herpetologists; academics; heathland site managers and national conservation agency staff. The guidance developed included the outcomes of a number of field trials of the recording and assessment procedures.

19. It concluded that, whilst grazing produced effects on vegetation structures and composition which were very difficult to achieve (perhaps not even possible) with other management techniques, it also presented a range of ‘critical points’ where such management could result in damaging losses of the very resources required for the heathland-associated insect and herpetological communities which are part of the management objectives.

20. It provided information and techniques whereby a heathland manager might assess the ‘risks’ involved and set informed limits on the severity and longevity of impacts. In doing this it accepted that there would inevitably be temporary negative impacts due to management processes (not only grazing) and that these are part of natural processes too.

21. The Species Recovery Field Cricket Project for English Nature (now Natural England). This project is almost completely based on the Western Weald Heaths of Sussex, Hampshire and Surrey.

6 Research has shown that this insect is closely associated with cycles of disturbance and re- colonisation in grasslands; especially, in the northern parts of its European range, those developed over sandy soils. Such acid grasslands are an integral part of heathlands.

22. Re-vegetation of areas of bare ground is fairly rapid, meaning that the insect, which cannot fly, must colonise suitable areas by walking. This means that such areas need to be fairly close to one another, something in the range of 400m maximum in any one year. It has been found that appropriate grazing by larger animals can extend the suitable longevity of an area considerably, whilst, at the same time, influencing the establishment of other suitable areas nearby.

23. At the remaining native colony of the Field Cricket which is near Coates, south of Petworth, pulsed grazing undertaken by a commercial herd of young cattle, coupled with a rotational cutting regime, has been extremely effective at establishing and maintaining good quality habitat for the Field Cricket as well as a wide range of other heathland insects.

24. This site is on the same soil type as Iping and Trotton, being part of the same band of heaths in West Sussex.

25. Iping Common is an historic site for this Schedule 5 insect and it has been re-introduced there under the Species Recovery Project, initially with reasonable success, including spreading to new areas within the site. However, this situation has not been maintained and the lack of a suitable modern grazing regime at Iping and Trotton Commons is regarded as the major factor.

26. The Silver-studded Blue Butterfly. This insect has been associated with Iping and Stedham Commons for as long as I have known them. Its numbers increase after a local fire or deliberate scraping of an area and then slowly die away. This reflects its association with an ant species, in the case of Iping and Stedham, Lasius platythorax. The fairly large scrape on the western edge of Trotton Common was rapidly colonised by SSB in the 1990s, but now has very few individuals present. This same area was also very suitable in the early days of the Field Cricket release at Iping and Trotton, but now holds very few, if any, individuals of this species either. Two photos from 2003 and 2013, although taken from different places at a scrape by the old quarry, Trotton Common, illustrate the changes well [SWT document no. 39].

27. Queens of L. platythorax establish new nests in small pieces of buried wood (dead heather or birch stems usually on Iping and Trotton) and such events provide plenty of these situated in warm, sunny conditions. The caterpillars of the Silver-studded Blue are attended and guarded by the ants, being eventually taken into the nests of L. platythorax and finish their development within it. Having a high density of ant nests which are large enough to support the caterpillars is clearly important. Such a density of nests relies completely on having the suitable nest- establishing conditions for the ant in the first instance.

28. The butterfly eggs are laid in short heathland vegetation and the caterpillar feeds particularly on the leaves of Bell Heather Erica cinerea and the adult at the flowers, which are one of the few nectar sources on the heath during the early part of the butterfly’s flight period. This ‘heather’ is associated with the earlier part of the heathland heather-vegetation succession and is eventually

7 out-competed by Ling Calluna vulgaris, the eventual dominance of which also increases the height and shading of the vegetation.

29. Grasses and Ling are much more palatable to grazing stock than Erica cinerea and the presence of grazing stock prolongs the open, Erica cinerea, stage of the vegetation succession considerably. The lack of effective grazing on Iping is, in my opinion, one of the major factors behind the rapid turn-over in locations for this butterfly on the Commons: even large colonies decline quickly. Interestingly these conditions are also those which favour the Field Cricket. See [SWT document 31]. Butterfly Conservation Fact Sheet for Silver-studded Blue.

History of Iping and Trotton Commons

30. Long-term fixed point photo monitoring is an excellent way of recording and helping to understand the changes in the landscape. There is a very good set of such photographs for Stedham Common, starting in 1996. These cover a period of pre- and post-grazing management. Under both scenarios the succession to young woodland has been extremely rapid in places; grazing alone is no panacea. However there are noticeable differences between the pre- and post-grazing periods. If matched against the Wildlife Trust’s management records, it provides some documentation of the effect of pulsed grazing management, plus mechanical management on this heathland.

31. The fixed-point set for Iping is of much shorter time-span and does not include any period of grazing. It does, however, capture the same rapid course of vegetation succession. This is amply illustrated in the accompanying three fixed-point views from 2010 and 2014 - just four years apart! [SWT document no. 40].

32. Both Commons are well documented at a larger scale by aerial photographs and these, coupled with eye-witness accounts of the Commons and faunal information, can help piece together a likely history. I here concentrate on Iping and Trotton Commons and the probable history of the Field Cricket on these Commons.

33. Gilbert White refers to the Field Cricket as being ‘most frequent on the edges of the Commons of Surrey and Sussex’. He used the relatively dry Greensand Heaths as his route to see his Aunt and her tortoise in Ringmer (the origin of the Ringmer tortoise emblem). The edges of the heaths would have been relatively disturbed by moving stock, as well as having fields which were cultivated and then let go as the nutrient levels dropped. A number of historic records of Field Cricket along this belt of heaths confirm the overall distribution of this insect.

34. The map of 1873 shows the area as rough grazing, there being more scrub growth towards the north. By 1879 it is marked as all rough grazing and this does not change in 1912 or 1913. [SWT document no. 41]. The evidence of Mr Mosley, submitted to the Stedham enquiry, confirms the general presence of grazing on these commons. [SWT document no. 42]. Mr. Mosley also spoke to me regarding Field Crickets when I met him on Stedham one day, saying they had been present on Stedham/Iping/Trotton as well as nearby Midhurst Common. Sadly, Mr Moseley is no longer alive.

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35. This presence of the Field Cricket, and the habitat conditions required for it [SWT document no. 27] was also confirmed by a chance encounter with a local farmer ‘Bertie’ Mitchell, who was a governor at the small Stedham Primary School which my children attended. I had taken a tank containing some of the breeding stock into the school to show the pupils. On the way out I met Mr. Mitchell who looked into the tank, and, completely unprompted, remarked that he hadn’t seen those for a long while. They used to be on the Common near Black Pond. He saw them when collecting Sphagnum for the war effort with his mum.

36. This immediately suggested that the area had been short vegetation and grazed at the time, as long grass and tall heather is not at all suitable. Jane Willmott reports a subsequent conversation with Mr Mitchell in which he refers to goats being grazed on the Common during and after World War 2.

37. This information, plus a confirmation of the area as being the same as that referred to for Field Crickets (and a much later early 1970s record -the last native sighting) was confirmed during a conversation I had with Mr Brian Collyer, who lived at the Keeper’s Arms (extreme north-west corner of Trotton Common) in the 1940s and 50s.

38. He told me that Miss Garnett Back, who looked after children, had goats, which were tethered on the bank rising from the path going onto the Common from the main road opposite the Chithurst triangle. She was a relative of Budds the Builders who had their yard by the Chithurst turn off the A272. Another local resident had bee-hives on the Common.

39. He remembers the Common as being more open than now, with more heather and less trees. The local keeper used to fire parts of the Common when the heather got long. There were also fires from military activity. One fire was particularly fierce, spreading towards Stedham Common.

40. This fire was referred to by another (then local) resident Mr Mike Hadley, whose family moved to Chithurst in 1953 when he was 8. Mike comments on the row of large trees along the old course of the A272 and notes that these were in great contrast to the rest of the Common, which was open and largely treeless. This is borne out by the early maps where these trees, which are still present, are clearly marked. A May 1974 photo by Chris Haes (now deceased) [SWT document no. 43] shows this row of trees set to the north of the re-aligned road by Trotton Gate Garage. The only location I know of for Bilberry in this area is in this belt of trees, close by Stedham School. This plant is frequent on the wooded parts of nearby Midhurst Common.

41. Mike also noted a large patch of open sand between Black Pond and the O.S. trig. point in the centre of Iping Common and would seem to be the same general area as Brian recalled there being a tank target. Mike commented that this area was fringed with Bracken, and I know that this plant eventually dominated here, until sprayed with Asulox in during 1990s.

42. Mike commented that Stedham Common was considerably more wooded than Iping and Trotton Commons. Mr Moseley, in his evidence, notes the activities of Wests in planting up areas of this

9 Common. However, from the 1947 aerial photograph and the earlier maps, Stedham appears to have been considerably more wooded from much earlier than this.

43. Please see the following aerial photographs:

43.1. [SWT document no. 44], 1947 43.2. [SWT document no. 45], 1966 43.3. [SWT document no. 46], 1992

44. The first direct evidence of the state of the Commons that I am aware of is the 1947 aerial photograph. All the locations referred to by Mike Hadley and Brian Collyer are recognisable and are marked on the accompanying copy.

45. By the time of the 1966 aerial many of the disturbances of the war period are considerably less obvious, but discernible. The increase of trees at the western end is particularly noticeable. The A272 still takes its historic route and the disturbance opposite Trotton Garage is particularly clear.

46. I first visited the Commons in 1972, shortly after the completion of laying a gas main from east to west across the commons. The heathers on either side were tall, with very few spaces between them, although the bare and re-vegetating ground of the gas main was of interest as a potential nesting site for wild bees and wasps. By August 1976 all the tall heather was merely a memory as a very extensive fire took out all but the extreme north-eastern part of the site at the end of July - 27th July I think. I was travelling back from East Sussex and the pillar of smoke could be seen from over 20 miles away.

47. The next week all that remained was a vast black blanket, with a few bees and wasps flying rather forlornly about, looking for their associated plants. The hot summer ended in September with heavy rains and all the ash was funnelled down the troughs across the Common. By the spring of 1997 these areas were marked out by lines of dense birch saplings, taking advantage of the increased fertiliser provided by the ash. The general location of much of this Birch growth is still in evidence today, despite extensive management work to reduce the proportion of this plant. Heathers started germinating that summer and the heathland cycle was off again.

48. Stedham Common remained unburnt, as it has in previous years (but a considerable portion burnt in the early 1980s, soon after the Wildlife Trust had bought the site). For the 1976 event, however, I was completely surprised at the number and variety of insects which were present on Iping within 5 years of the fire - this taught me that such events are not inevitably the catastrophe that many publicity machines were making out - it all depended on the context and landscape.

Signed Dated 29th February 2016

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