ISSUE 96 SUMMER UPSTREAM 2021 Inside this issue © Simon Barnett BBOWT » p3 » p4 » p8 Wildfire Wildmoor Heath Damage at April 2021 Wildfire 3 Conservation Volunteers Resume 4 Wild Birds Adapt 8 Summer Walk Wildfire and Wildlife Plus lots more... Throughout the course of factors – many fires have either been moorland plant communities, largely Earth’s history, wildfire has started deliberately by arsonists or are due to the nature of the vegetation. played a significant role – the result of negligence. Likely causes of Plants such as gorse contain flammable wildfire are: discarded cigarettes, or glass compounds and extensive areas of both in terms of its ability to and plastic bottles these can concentrate grasses, bracken and heather burn re-shape the landscape and the rays of the sun and ignite dry readily in dry conditions. Lowland the advantage that it confers vegetation, combustible litter, embers heathland is particularly prone to on organisms adapted to its from neighbours’ bonfires and campfires drought, due to its largely free draining presence. Plants adapted to or discarded portable barbeques. nature on sand or gravel substrates. tolerate fire are known as There have even been instances where Reedbeds are also prone to wildfire. Dry ‘pyrophytes’, while ‘pyrophiles’ wildfires have originated from bonfires standing reed and sedges burn readily are plants which require fire to on heathland sites where conservation and the dry dead thatch that builds help them complete their life work (not WBCV) has been carried up at the base of reed stems aids the cycle. Wildfire can therefore be out over the winter. The fire has been rapid spread of fire in this habitat. There dutifully doused but has penetrated the is anecdotal evidence that reedbeds seen as an important natural rootstocks of heather, gorse or broom, along the Kennet Valley such as those process and a selective force in smoldering below ground over winter at Thatcham and Woolhampton were plant evolution. and then re-igniting above ground – regularly burnt by stray embers from sometimes months later. Unfortunately, whilst there are a number steam trains that plied the main line from of ‘natural’ wildfires in the country every Wildfire is most commonly associated in Paddington westwards until the 1960s. year – caused by lightning strike or other this country with lowland heathland and Continued on page 4 > West Berkshire Countryside Society Caring for our Countryside – Join Us and Help Make a Difference. West Berkshire Countryside Society The aim of the West Berkshire Countryside Society is to promote the understanding, appreciation and conservation of the West Berkshire countryside… furthering these objectives through practical conservation work and guided walks and talks from local experts. It was formed in 2012 by amalgamating the Friends of the Pang, Kennet & Lambourn Valleys; the Bucklebury Heathland Conservation Group; the Pang Valley Conservation Volunteers & the Barn Owl Group. Upstream is our quarterly publication designed to highlight conservation matters in West Berkshire and beyond and to publicise the activities of the Society. Chair, Webmaster & Enquiries: Tony McDonald Membership Secretary: Stewart Waight ([email protected]) Upstream Editor: John Salmon ([email protected]) Hon President: Dick Greenaway MBE RD Initial contact for all above and for the Barn Owl Group, Bucklebury Heathland Conservation Group and West Berks Conservation Volunteers should, unless otherwise stated, be made via [email protected] Volunteers’ Task Diary For outdoor events please wear suitable footwear and clothing. Most practical tasks start at 10am and usually finish around 3pm, unless otherwise stated, so bring a packed lunch. However, we are more than happy to accept any time you can spare! All tools are provided. A map of each task location can be found on the website diary page by clicking on the grid reference shown for that task. Date/Time Venue Details July 2021 Tues 6th July Sulham Water Meadows Continuing ragwort control on this SSSI. Parking at Sulham Home Farm. SU643 758 10:00 Tues 13th July Winterbourne Wood Clearing bracken from Primrose Ridge. SU447 717 10:00 Tues 20th July Ashampstead Common Raking previously cut grass in woodland glades. Meet at car park. SU587 751 10:00 Tues 27th July Grove Pit Common, Scrub clearance on this parish wildlife site. Access the common via the track which leaves the SU440 777 10:00 Leckhampstead B4494 west at Cotswold Farm. Please leave your vehicles at the bottom of the track and walk up to the common. Vehicles carrying tools and refreshments please drive directly to the task site. August 2021 Tues 3rd Aug Rushall Manor Farm, Woodland management, and ride widening. Meet at the Black Barn off Back Lane between SU584 723 10:00 Bradfield Stanford Dingley and Bradfield. Tues 10th Aug Redhill Wood Hampstead Ride widening and brash clearance. Parking off road on entrance to the main ride. SU420 642 10:00 Marshall Tues 17th Aug Malt House, West Woodland maintenance. SU395 637 10:00 Woodhay Tues 24th Aug Furze Hill, Hermitage Woodland and butterfly habitat management on this parish wildlife site. Parking at new village SU512 740 10:00 hall – through double gates off Pinewood Crescent. September 2021 Tues 7th Sept Grimsbury Castle, Clearing invasive rhododendron from this ancient hill fort. Parking near the Estate House at the SU511 723 10:00 Hermitage castle by the interpretation board. Tues 14th Sept Winterbourne Wood Woodland maintenance, and clearing fallen and damaged trees. Park in the entrance to the wood. SU447 717 10:00 Tues 21st Sept Bucklebury Common Heathland management. Meet at Angels Corner. SU550 688 10:00 Tues 28th Sept Cold Ash Scrub clearance on this parish wildlife site. Park on the track access to Westrop Farm. SU513 700 10:00 2 © Andy Hollox © Andy Haloed Trees at Leckhamstead at Leckhamstead Haloed Trees Conservation Volunteers Round Up After the winter COVID restrictions courses to prevent bovine access to clearing at the northern end by cutting forced us once more to halt our water courses – our task was to remove back and burning brash, coppiced hazel activities, we were delighted to be years of unchecked growth of hawthorn, stools using plastic fencing we had allowed to resume them in late March at bramble, willow and blackthorn so that a salvaged from Redhill Wood and cleared Rushall Farm, where pleasant sunshine new fence could be erected. ground (haloing) around some staked boosted our spirits even more. In unseasonal heat for April, we trees to remove competitor brambles. A pre-task briefing reminded us of the made one of our regular visits to Two dead elm close to the right-of-way extra health and safety precautions Winterbourne Wood, clearing an area were also removed for safety reasons. necessary because of the pandemic. of fallen and damaged trees, scrub and At Malt House Farm, West Woodhay, Happily, we were able to socially bramble. We dealt with brash from a we continued to maintain the boundary distance ourselves over 220 metres of previous visit, using some to protect on one side of an agricultural field. We hedge in Owlpit Field (the name relating coppiced hazel stools from deer and also ‘tidied up’ the woodland, cutting up from the nearby pit named on old maps which were already showing signs of some fallen trees into logs and stacking as Old Pit). Excessive bramble had grown regrowth. We also felled several birch them to form habitats. along the length. We removed and and ash allowing a track to be realigned burned this, along with several fallen so that it avoided a spring which made On Bucklebury Common we divided branches. the original route very boggy, even in into three groups to continue combatting invasive trees, with the aim A month later we worked on a new site, summer. of encouraging the natural heathland to the water meadows north of Bradfield At Leckhampstead, we made a second flourish. Our chainsaw-users felled and which have been under Rushall visit to a parish council site at Hill Green, Farm management for twenty years. removing regrowth from alongside cut up mature Scot’s pine, a larger group Traditionally, suckler cows graze there a public right-of-way. Our efforts last removed very young pine and birch, over the summer, thriving on the lush year ensured this primary task was and a third tackled 50 metres of very grass that continues to grow at that time completed much earlier than expected, formidable bramble, part of which was of year. A small tributary of the Pang enabling some volunteers to start work blocking a gated access for emergency runs alongside the site. Landowners on a further strip of land bordering the vehicles. are being encouraged to fence water meadow. Cutting back the bramble Terry Crawford growth allows nettles to thrive for the benefit of butterflies and moths at this time of year. A second team cleared a couple of small trees that had fallen across Gypsy Lane and cut back branches from other trees bordering this public byway. A further visit to Leckhampstead, this time to Grove Pit, saw us completing three tasks under the Management Plan Bradfield – Clearance Commences © Tony McDonald for the common. We opened up the Bradfield – Stream Revealed © Tony McDonald 3 Continued from page 1. Grassland communities also burn in succumb to the burn. Aside from the the right conditions, as does coniferous initial damage there is also a ‘flush’ woodland. Scots pine in particular of nutrients from the burnt material contain flammable resins and oils. A which will alter soil chemistry and often number of conifers are pyrophytes and stimulate more vigorous plant species some are pyrophiles. over those typically associated with the habitat. This may provide enough of Fire is often a regenerative force in a shift to change the trajectory of the the long term – it is an agent of plant habitat long term.