Bare patches of grass scattered around the Common are part of an ongoing project to restore our rural landscape to its former glory by reseeding with heather
Ranger Andy Goddard explains
The green, green grass of home is slowly turning purple…
Take a walk over the Common between the Memorial Hall and the ponds, cast your eyes downwards and you might think turf thieves have been at work. But far from it – Ranger Andy Goddard has been scraping away some grass patches to expose the soil, and all with good reason.
“We are deliberately creating bare areas so we can re-seed with heather” says Andy, “It’s a part of a ten year High Level Stewardship scheme between the Parish Council and Natural England where we carefully manage the Common (which is lowland heath), following Natural England guidelines. We are concerned with preserving features related to the history and culture of the rural landscape, restoring wildlife habitats and managing woodland. Grazing comes into it too. Cattle is the best way to manage grass. Birds nest on the ground and ants nests can be preserved this way and it’s good for the wild flowers.”
What we have on the Common is dry acid grassland which has declined nationally by 97% since the 1940s, mostly due to farmers ploughing land and choosing rye grass instead which is better suited to agriculture.
“People don’t understand how precious our grassland in Chorleywood is” adds Andy, “it has taken thousands of years to develop. Lowland heathland is so important for wildlife. In Hertfordshire there are only 165 hectares of acidic grass remaining with a fair percentage of that being on the Common.”
Bringing back the heathland community of dwarf shrubs like gorse and heather is a key aim of this Natural England stewardship, with a target of reaching between 10% and 95% by the year 2022. It is a vital part of conserving the character of the British landscape as a whole. And it’s a gradual process. Every year there is more heather in evidence.
“Last October we collected seedlings from heather plants already growing on the Common. The seeds were scattered in March over the parts where the top soil had been removed. When the seedlings are tiny they look like mini Christmas trees! We are getting grass species turning up we haven’t seen on the common before too. They can be present but lying dormant, sometimes for 100s of years, just waiting for ideal conditions.
“Lots of wildlife like the scraped areas – the bare soil gets warm in the summer sun and attracts butterflies. Solitary sand wasps make holes – they lay eggs then find caterpillars and grubs to stash away in the holes so there is a food source ready for when the eggs hatch.”
In three years the work should pay off and we will have considerably more native heather growing in isolated clusters on our Common and in the distant future they will eventually link up and the landscape should resemble an extensive carpet of vivid purple and yellow similar to the heathland witnessed by the earliest Chorleywood residents.
But in the meantime it’s down to us to give it some respect.