Lowland Dry Acid Grassland - Gloucestershire

Acid Grassland - Gloucestershire


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Dorset	none	Lowland Dry Acid Grassland	Biodiversity Action Plan for Gloucestershire BAP title

Key factors

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Extent/Distribution

The habitat often co-exists with heathland habitats and frequently contains small areas of mire. In Gloucestershire acid grassland are predominantly of the types classified as ‘lowland dry acid grasslands’ but the county also supports a small resource of ‘upland acid grasslands’ in mosaic/transition with lowland types.

In Gloucestershire the resource of acid grassland habitats is largely restricted to the west of the county i.e. Forest of Dean District, lying in the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley Natural Area. Of particular importance are the poor soils overlying the Carboniferous Coal measures in the central Forest of Dean and the sandstone hills around Newent and Dymock north to the southern point of the Malvern Hills .

Acid grassland habitats include the Festuca ovina - Agrostis capillaris - Rumex acetosella (U1), Festuca ovina - Agrostis capillaris - Galium saxatile (U4) and Nardus stricta - Galium saxatile grassland (U5) National Vegetation Classification grassland plant communities. U1 and U4 are the two main types found within Gloucestershire. U4 is the characteristic community of the unenclosed rough grazed grassland of the Forest of Dean. These communities often occur with heathland (H8) and mire communities (M6, M23, M25 and M27) and in association with former mineral working sites and their spoil heaps where complex soils also result in them occurring in transition /mosaic with neutral and calcareous grassland types.

The known resource (from 1994-96 Forest of Dean Grassland Survey) is about 100 hectares (including transition communities). These however are the well defined sites and does not take into account the abundance of acid grassland habitats which occur throughout the central Forest of Dean on roadsides, along forest tracks, in glades and clear-felled areas. It is estimated that the actual resource is probably at least 2-3 times the known resource i.e. 2-300 hectares).

Three acid grassland sites are notified as SSSI’s (Poor’s Allotment, May Hill and Malvern Hills SSSI which extends into Gloucestershire at Chase End Hill). Other important localities of high conservation value include open space and forest waste sites within the Forest Enterprise’s land holding in the Statutory Forest of Dean (Moseley Green, The Barracks, Clearwell Meend, Ellwood Green and Dark Hill) and Key Wildlife Sites (Laymoor Quag, Cinderford Linear Park and Ruardean Hill). There are, in addition, a number of other sites which have been so severely affected by scrub and bracken encroachment that they are practically unrecognizable as being locations of importance for acid grassland (and heath)
communities but present excellent opportunities for restoration and increase of the resource e.g. Staunton Meend.

Threats

The factors currently affecting acid grassland reduce the quality and quantity of acid
grassland. The fragmentation of the habitat brings increased risk of species extinctions in the small remnant areas. The factors include:

Agricultural intensification by use of fertilisers, herbicides and other pesticide, liming, re-seeding or ploughing for arable crops (often following a change in ownership)

Agricultural and other management neglect leading to rank overgrowth, and bracken
Pteridium aquilinum and scrub encroachment.

Localised forestry effects (impact of forestry operations, increased crop height and shading)

Development (particularly reworking of former mineral/spoil heap sites, housing and
industrial development, amenity improvement of Forest Waste/community fringe areas.

Recreational pressures

Action Plan Objectives