Volunteers make light work to support new heathland
Volunteers and Rangers have worked hard over the last few years to create a new area of heathland in the northeast corner of West Wickham Common. In October the WWaSP’s were joined by a team of employees from a local tech company who spent the day cutting and removing holly and other scrub. The extra help was gladly welcomed, and the group sailed through the large section of dense-growing holly, before spreading heather cuttings on what will soon be a new area of heathland. There are a few larger trees that will be removed by the Rangers during winter. This will increase light to the woodland floor and provide ideal conditions for the heathland to establish. It has been great to watch this project take shape over the last few years, and we hope to see everyone’s efforts rewarded with the appearance of new shoots of heather!
Sowing heather to ‘sure up’ important heathland habitat
Now much of the heavy work of cutting back scrub and trees has been completed, the time has come to spread heather seeds and wait for them to establish; this was the aim of an additional volunteer task last month. Cuttings of heather (Calluna vulgaris) were taken from the existing heathland on the Common and spread onto ground that had been raked to reveal bare soil. An area around the existing heath was also sown with cuttings to help expand and protect what is already there. Historically, most of the Common would once have been heathland – a landscape characterised by heather and kept open by grazing livestock and local people collecting firewood and other material. Over time, heathlands across London and the southeast have disappeared at a staggering rate. What is left has fragmented into ‘islands’, becoming isolated from one another and vulnerable to stressors such as fire, disease and climate change; the new heathland will help to reconnect the existing heathland on the Common and other ones in the local landscape for the benefit of people and wildlife.
