Comment: |
For details see site check form on TRIM. Targets hit for wet woodland and assemblage of breeding birds – variety of birds. Eutrophication - Urtica dioica is frequent or constant across most of the wet woodland units. If this was scored against generic open fen targets (e.g. S4) this frequency of nettles would signal a problem (e.g. drying out or eutrophication) and fail the unit. In wet woodland it does not. Does this make sense? Is the habitat eutrophied or drying out, and if it is, does it have a negative impact on its condition? Drainage - There are lot of open drains across the site. In the wet woodland units that I assessed at Aqualate, some or most of the ditches are partially/fully blocked and might not be functioning. However, I’ve noted that the peat in units 45 and 46 seemed fairly dry and the water table was not at the surface, so perhaps they do have an impact? And even if there is no functionality to the ditches, would there be any harm to blocking them, just to make sure? There might be some conflict between the issues/threats listed above. For example blocking ditches and restoring a more natural hydrological regime might raise water levels and make grazing harder. It might also spread eutrophication if the sources of the ditch water are polluted/enriched.
|