Botanical surveys and habitat restoration for endangered plants

Earlier this year we helped oversee some exciting habitat restoration work on one of Cornwall’s Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs). The work was undertaken for marsh clubmoss (Lycopodiella inundata). This species is one of our favourites as John was responsible for accidentally re-finding it in Cornwall during 2015 after it had been thought extinct in the county. It is a diminutive species belonging to an ancient groups of plants more or less unchanged since the time of the dinosaurs sometimes referred to as ‘living fossils.’ Marsh clubmoss is a poor competitor and needs bare ground to survive – it’s not often that we find ourselves digging up SSSIs but this is exactly the kind of disturbance this rare species requires.

Contracted by the local Commoners’ Association and Plantlife (and with the consent of Natural England) we helped to create a series of ‘scrapes’ within overgrown areas from which the clubmoss has historically been recorded. In common with many of our rarer plants marsh clubmoss has suffered in recent years due, in part, to the decline in traditional agricultural management such as extensive grazing of marginal land. Grazing has now been re-introduced at the site and it is hoped that species not seen in recent years such as the clubmoss may soon reappear.

Ecology Partners have been working on the site, an area of about 65ha of heathland and mire in mid-Cornwall, since early last year when we were contracted by the Commoners’ Association to carry out a botanical survey to provide a new baseline by which to assess the condition of the important habitats which the site supports and inform an application for Countryside Stewardship. We carried out an abbreviated National Vegetation Classification and Common Standards Monitoring survey and an audit of the rare plants which have been recorded on the Common. Our report provided recommendations for future management (including habitat restoration for marsh clubmoss).

Creating the scrapes during one of the wettest winters anyone seems to be able to remember was a challenge – we waited and waited for a break in the weather only for the rain to be replaced by snow – a rarity in Cornwall. Nevertheless the work was completed in time and we’re looking forward to carrying out on-going monitoring work to see what plants come up!