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| Sefton Coast Partnership | Shoreline Management | Nature and Wildlife | Coastal Heritage | Visiting the Coast | Students and Teachers | Coastlines | |
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Winter 1995NEW LIFE FOR OLD DUNESArticle by Mike Gee, Site Manager, English Nature Restoring the open dune habitat and Landscape at Ainsdale sand Dunes national Nature Reserve. When Ainsdale Sand Dunes National Nature Reserve, the first nature reserve on the Sefton Coast, was declared in 1965 it was because of its value as the finest example of lime-rich sand dunes on the north-west coast of England. Its range of habitats from strandline vegetation through embryo dunes and yellow dunes to fixed dunes with numerous wet dune-slacks supports a unique flora and fauna including many rare species. However, it has long been recognised that the frontal woodland on the Reserve has caused serious problems for the once open-dune areas which mode the site nationally important. The woodlands on Ainsdale Sand Dunes NNR are mostly non-native species and were mainly planted in the early 1 900s to stabilise the one highly mobile dune system. They are split into Two main areas, a frontal woodland planted on the dunes close to the beach and a far more extensive rearward woodland at the back of the site. The frontal woodland created a shelterbelt effect from the strong, salt-laden prevailing winds and a localised lowering of the water table. This combination and a dramatic drop in dune-grazing by rabbits in the 1950s due to myxomatosis lead to a rapid invasion of scrub species into the once open dune areas. The scrub invasion and a subsequent reduction in the quality of the habitat soon became a serious issue on the Reserve and numerous experimental ways of dealing with the problem were investigated. Many of these were small scale and did not address the main cause of the problem caused by the frontal woodland and the resulting accelerated succession on the dunes. Though a management planning process it was decided to attack the problem in two ways - to carry auto phased removal of the frontal woodland which is both species poor and of very low timber quality~ and to remove all large scrub species including sea buckthorn, birch and balsam poplar. These would be stump treated with herbicide to prevent re-growth and a stock-grazing regime plants and even a breeding attempt by ringed implemented. An 11 hectare area containing 4.5 hectares of pines at the northern end of the frontal woodland was cleared in 1992, all cut branches and scrub were removed and the grazing programme, already established on the now scrub-free apex dunes, was extended onto the clear fell site. Grazing is a sustainable management tool and has proved to be very successful on the Reserve using Herdwick sheep. An intensive monitoring programme was also initiated for this ambitious project to return this area to an open dune system. Three years an this project is showing red gains for nature conservation although obviously same areas of the clear fall will take longer to return to high value habitat than others. During the last two years there has bean a return to large areas of flooded slacks with Natterjack toads singing at mating times; send lizard seen in the newly restored areas; a return of many typical dune and wet-slack plover, birds that would normally breed an the foreshore. Phase two of this both nationally and internationally important project will be taking place from September 1995 to March 1996 with the clearing of approximately 16 hectares of scrub and woodland. It is planned to extend the grazing to include this area in 1996. Although the pine woodland is a far less valuable habitat than the open dunes it does provide, if well managed, a relatively valuable additional conservation resource supporting its own distinctive wildlife including the red squirrel. There is an ongoing programme to ensure the continued health of the rearward coniferous woodland and to improve its nature conservation interest. For more information contact. Site Manager, English Nature, Ainsdale Sand Dunes NNR, 2 West End Lodge, Pinfold Lane, Ainsdale. PR8 30W. Tel 01704 578774
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