Fight festive flab by helping on the heath
East Devon Education Ranger James Chubb gets active in the countryside
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| • EXPLORATION on the heaths can be fun. |
THE New Year is here once again, and that means one thing - overwhelming guilt about just how much I've managed to eat and drink in the last three weeks. So it's a good time to fit a bit of exercise into the day job, and get out into the countryside.
This year the East Devon District Council Countryside Service is extending a warm invitation to anyone who fancies getting to grips with some practical nature conservation, to come along and help with heathland management.
EDDC Countryside Ranger Dave and I, will be bashing birch on Trinity Hill LNR, near Axminster, this Saturday, Jan 13 all morning from 10am until 12.30. We're trying out a new, never been seen method of removing the birch, which is really easy and requires no expertise, just enthusiasm. So if you have an hour to spare and would like to see the sharp end of nature reserves, come along and lend a hand.
Trinity Hill Local Nature Reserve can be found a few hundred yards on the left along Trinity Hill Road, off the A35 near Axminster at Raymond's Hill.
Species control is always a difficult thing to justify, especially if its animals you have to 'control' not plants. The first thing you have to bear in mind with heathland management is that a heath is not a 'natural' habitat, but that's not to say it isn't really very special indeed.
Heathland didn't really exist in any quantity before the Iron Age. It was not until then that humans had the capability to fell vast areas of ancient Britain's woodlands and graze them with recently domesticated livestock. Where geological conditions were favourable, this form of prehistoric habitat management lead to the creation of heaths.
A heathland is an area of lowland, that's land below 1000 feet, dominated by heathers and small shrubs. If left completely to its own accord, with no livestock grazing or human intervention, an area of heath will quickly scrub over and eventually woodland will predominate. Lowland heath, as typified by the east Devon Pebblebeds and Dorset heaths are a fine example of a very rare habitat. Globally these heaths are much, much scarcer than rainforest with 24 per cent of the global coverage of heath occurring in the UK, and 14 per cent of that being found here, on our doorstep in East Devon.
The microclimate is kept warmer than the surrounding landscape, with the heather acting like a wind break and developing humidity close to the ground, which is brilliant for invertebrates. Species such as the fearsome green tiger beetle patrol the ground and air looking for smaller, slower insects to catch and eat; and for a green tiger beetle that's just about everything! A glut of insects means food for insectivorous animals, so heathland is brilliant for birds and reptiles. Common lizards do very well and in turn are food for the resident adders, much maligned snakes that don't deserve their feared reputation.
Adders are really very tiny little snakes. Large females seldom get bigger than 65 centimetres in length, males smaller still. They are fascinating creatures, being the most cosmopolitan reptiles on earth and living at more northerly latitudes than any other reptile. They are even capable of living and breeding north of the Arctic Circle, however breeding success is once every few years, when there's a particularly warm summer.
In the far north of their range they occur in a melanistic, or totally black form, which helps them to soak up heat in the weakest arctic sunshine. I love watching adders, and early spring is the best time, just after they have come out of hibernation and are warming in early morning sun. If you are out deliberately looking for them at this time of day and time of year, be really careful about where you tread, as this is the time they have least chance to get out of the way of your feet. Whereas at midday you will seldom see an adder as they disappear into the brush before you get close enough to see them, they are unable to move quickly while they are cold, and this is the time bites are most likely.
Ultimately, heath is just a lovely place to spend time in, especially in the summer months. I accept that, in the winter, it gets a little bleak and things look rather drab and inhospitable, but come the summer it is my favourite place to explore.
By getting involved in some East Devon heathland management, not only will you be burning excess festive calories, but you will also be helping species such as yellowhammers, common lizards (not as common as the name suggests), nightjars, grayling butterflies and tree pipits - yep, removing young trees will help tree pipits, as strange as this sounds! So you'll also be helping your conscience as well as the countryside. And I can assure you that a warming nip of something alcoholic always tastes better after a morning spent working in the great outdoors.
If you are unable to get along to the practical morning, but would like to know more about heaths, why not become a Friend of Trinity Hill?
It's totally free, all you need to do is contact the Countryside Service on 01395 517557, and you will receive details of events and activities coming up at the Local Nature Reserve throughout the year
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