From the Usk to Wye Reserves 

The Usk to Wye volunteers spent time at The Wern this month working hard to clear swathes of bracken and scrub. The Wern is a wonderful reserve with dwarf oak trees covered in lichens, mosses and ferns, ancient yew trees and a small area of lowland heath.

Over the last thirty years lowland heath habitat has become dominated by bracken, in order to protect this increasingly rare habitat our Senior Grazing Officer Joe Ryder has been coordinating a restoration project. So far this has involved constructing deer protected zones around the remaining bilberry plants, ensuring they aren’t eaten by the Fallow and Roe deer.

This winter we are planning to graze the reserve with a small number of cattle, which will hopefully help keep the bracken in check, allowing other heathland plants, including the bilberry to recover. Employing natural processes such as grazing (whilst protecting this habitat from overgrazing), and through the efforts of our volunteers, we are steering this magical reserve in the right direction. 

Down on the Gwent Levels 

Winter period see’s the Gwent levellers group stuck into scrub clearance works, particularly focusing on the reedbeds at Magor marsh and the designated ditches. This involves clearing willow and bramble to protect these important habitats. Visitors to Magor marsh will have noticed an effort in the reedbed around Cwrta well reen, or as we at GWT have coined it Water Vole alley, as this was one of the original release sites for the water vole re-introduction and has remained a good ditch for evidence of their presence.  

The volunteer group has been hard at work clearing willow scrub and bankside vegetation to reduce it choking the water course, allowing more natural light into the water for all life that lives, breeds and feeds within. It will also encourage a wider diversity of bankside herb species with the dominant thickets of bramble controlled. 

Over in the Eastern Valleys Reserves 

One of the winter tasks our volunteers are all too familiar with is the cutting and collecting of our many meadows. In November, our valleys volunteers have been working hard to get our Branches Fork Meadows reserve cut and raked.  

This management is important for promoting floral diversity. If grasslands are left uncut, the dense grass will eventually die back and rot down, adding nutrients into the soil. This promotes the growth of more grass in subsequent seasons, leading to fields of tall, thick grass with few wildflowers as they are outcompeted. Many of our meadow flowers rely on a low nutrient soil to flourish, which is why removing the grass once it has been cut is just as important and cutting, even though raking dense, wet clumps of grass can be an exhausting job! 

Branches Fork Meadows is an interesting site with each of its three fields supporting their own distinct plant and invertebrate communities. The small area of marshy grassland on the east of the reserve is home to mounds of purple moor grass and longhorn moths. The middle field with its scattered oak trees is more acidic, with bilberry, heath bedstraw and Devil’s bit-scabious. On the western side of the site, the largest field is full of pink patches of lousewort and golden clusters of tormentil and greater bird’s-foot-trefoil, and if you are there at the right time, heath-spotted orchids.  

None of this diversity would be here if it wasn’t for our volunteer's tireless efforts in trimming, scything and raking these meadows. 

Off our reserves 

Elsewhere in Gwent, our volunteers have been out with Caerphilly County Borough Council at Aberbargoed Grasslands National Nature Reserve. As well as offering fantastic views across the valley, this grassland was the first National Nature Reserve in Wales to be designated in an urban setting. The reason behind this is that it is home to the scarce marsh fritillary butterfly and the patchwork of wet grassland and rush pasture it relies on. The site is also full of other wildlife, including rare plants and fungi, thanks to the old farmland never being intensively managed or drained.  

The mosaic of grassland, trees and scrub does require some management though, which is where our volunteers come in! At the beginning of November, we spent a day cutting back a patch of scrub felling small trees to open up an area of grassland that had begun to be encroached. This is particularly important for the marsh fritillary butterfly. The encroachment of scrub results in the degradation and loss of the marshy grassland the species depend upon. Furthermore, these butterflies are weak fliers, meaning that once they are lost from an area, it is very unlikely that neighboring populations will be able to recolonize it. Ensuring there are high-quality, well-connected areas of marshy grassland is key to their survival.  

Top species sighted in November 

Water Rail are renowned for being secretive, favoring the dense vegetation of freshwater wetlands and ditches. It is for this reason that they are a very difficult bird to census.  

Earlier this November, our Evidence Team carried out a Water Rail survey with Gwent Ornithological Society at Magor Marsh. Surveys are carried out by playing the species calls, and then listening for a response. It is the intention that Magor Marsh will become a site for ongoing monitoring for this species in Gwent.  

We are excited to confirm that at least 18 individuals were recorded at the site!