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Forestry Commission
Scotton Common Heathland Restoration Project
The area now known as Laughton Forest was acquired
by the Forestry Commission in 1926 and was described at the time as a
rabbit infested sandy waste used only for sporting purposes. Stone Curlew,
Dunlin, & Ruff had all bred regularly until the end of the 19th Century
and Redshank and Wheatear only disappeared in the early years of the 20th.
Black Grouse was a common bird in the newly developing forest but the
damage it caused to young Pine trees was second only in commercial importance
to that inflicted by rabbits. Numbers were reduced by shooting and the
remnant population eventually disappeared from the forest sometime about
the beginning of the second world war at which time the species was suffering
a national decline.
Historical Heritage
The bulk of the forest lies on the Triassic and Lias
measures, with the lower lying areas (in places only 2m above sea level)
on the Recent measures of the Trent estuary. The whole area is covered,
to a varying depth, by blown sand which being very fine is extremely
mobile leading to dune formation where it is buttressed against the western
escarpment
of Reddish Keuper Marl. The yellow clay of the Lias comes close to the
surface in the east where it impedes drainage and creates a perched and
rapidly fluctuating water table. In this area the dry heath is interspersed
with wet heath and bogs along with both permanent and seasonal pools.
Despite difficulties presented by the site, the climate, and various
pests, trees were established successfully over much of the area and
growth rates
were impressive. However in other parts of the forest, notably the low
lying areas in the south west and the seasonally waterlogged eastern
side,
establishment was difficult and growth rates less than encouraging. Despite
experiments with different species and silvicultural techniques high
establishment
and working costs coupled with low growth rates made commercial forestry
unviable in some of these areas.
Forestry Commission Management
The Forestry Commission was established in 1919 with the sole objective
of growing trees to provide a reserve of timber against a national emergency
such as had arisen during the first world war. Over the years the emphasis
changed, first to practising commercial forestry and then more gradually,
but ultimately more fundamentally, to the current position where the
Forestry Commission's objectives encompass environmental and social aims as
well
as financial and efficiency targets. This gives a greater range of management
options so that rather than attempting to modify sites in order to achieve
vigorous tree growth opportunities can be taken for more appropriate
and sensitive site management.
Such an opportunity arose with the clearfelling of some of the wetter
areas of Scotton Common in 1992 and 1993. Standard practice would have
been to restock with Corsican pine but the quality of the previous crop
coupled with the difficult site conditions suggested that this was not
a commercially viable option. Furthermore, the cleared areas, and particularly
the rides, still retained a typical heathland flora despite almost 70
years of "commercial" forestry. Previous experience indicated that the
site had considerable potential for reversion to heathland and this was
confirmed by the vigorous regeneration of heather in the newly cleared
areas. The value of the area was reinforced by the presence of the only
Lincolnshire site for Round-leaved sundew and the relative abundance
of
Bog pimpernel.
The move to Heathland
A fairly basic survey of vegetation types throughout the
rest of the Scotton Common area revealed a total of approximately 80
ha of land retaining the characteristics of wet heathland (Appendix I)
and therefore not only unsuitable for commercial forestry but of great
value in habitat terms. In line with FC policy on creating and maintaining
open
space within woodland habitats the decision was taken to ultimately clear
the whole of this 80 ha. block and manage it as heathland thereafter.
At the time this decision was sufficiently radical to require the approval
of the Regional Director and although it pre-dates the FC Biodiversity
Action Plan on lowland heathland by several years, it is entirely in
line with current policy on meeting BAP targets.
Further felling in 1995 (Appendix II) brought the total area cleared
of conifers to 30 ha. and at this stage it was clear that successful
reversion to heathland would, particularly in the early stages, depend
on clearing most of the extensive birch scrub and controlling the subsequent
coppice
growth and regeneration from seed. The more mature birch would have to
be felled by chainsaw but mechanical clearance of scrubby growth, which
would be quicker and therefore cheaper, seemed an attractive possibility.
The only practical way of controlling the regrowth seemed to be by grazing
with sheep which was being used to good effect by the Lincolnshire Trust
on the adjacent Scotton Common reserve. After some searching a local
grazing tenant was found who acquired 150 Herdwick ewes along with 4
Charolais
tups. The tenant paid for the erection of stock-proof fences using materials
supplied by the FC.
Managing Scrub
Meanwhile various methods of clearing birch scrub by
mechanical means had been tried with varying results. A hedgecutting
flail mounted on a hydraulic arm was insufficiently robust in contact
with the
stumps remaining from clearfelling and while a chain swipe gave decent
results in scrub up to 1 m in height it struggled with anything bigger.
The answer seemed to be a "jungle buster" type of machine used by the
FC in Wales and apparently capable of reducing to chips trees up to 20
cm. in diameter . This proved to be the most disappointing of all in
that
although everything was flattened some of it then escaped the cutters
and was not severed from the stump resulting in a tangle of live growth
on the ground amongst which no sheep could get. From this point on birch
clearance and burning was carried on by more expensive but more satisfactory
motor manual methods.
Grazing Heathlands
Initial results from grazing were encouraging with most stumps cut mechanically
in March 1997 and grazed in late April of the same year killed outright.
However an area cleared mechanically one month earlier and not grazed
until June 1997 showed very few stumps killed outright in the first year.
Once birch clearance began it was essential to prevent regrowth or, at
worst, to ke
ep it at such a level that it would not require further expensive
cutting and in this the grazing was successful. However as the site developed
a more subtle approach was required and it had become apparent that the
need for a more refined grazing regime was inconsistent with the farmer's
commercial objectives. This coupled with the grazing preferences of Herdwick,
which have held back heather regeneration has led to an early termination
of the grazing agreement to the mutual satisfaction of both parties.
The benefits of grazing are clear and will continue next year using a
more appropriate breed of sheep and with a tenant more sympathetic to
site needs who, not being part of mainstream farming, is not subject
to the same commercial pressures. Further clearance of birch scrub will
take place during the coming winter and established surveys to monitor
site progress will continue and hopefully be expanded to cover other
groups. The next phase of pine clearance is programmed for 2002-2006
taking the
total area cleared to 60 ha. with the remaining 20 ha. due for felling
in the period 2012-2016. Results from both ongoing surveys and a visit
by the Lincolnshire Naturalists Union in 1998 have been encouraging and
indications suggest that the site is beginning to re-establish at least
some of its former glory.
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