The impact of sand extraction at Formby Point ... - Sefton Council

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only six post-1987 10km squares (hectads) in the British Isles. Nearby, are two bushes of
Salix x friesiana (14 post-1987 hectads), also nationally rare.
To the west of the mature woodland, a zone of regenerating scrub, mainly Balm-of-
Gilead much affected by fungal die-back, gradually gives way to a gently undulating
landscape, the vegetation of which consists of a mosaic of grassy fixed-dune and fixed
dune with Creeping Willow with scattered small trees of birch and pine. There is one
fine young specimen of Salix x doniana at SD 27646 06693. The western edge of the
quarry here is a 3-4m-high fixed dune ridge, beyond which lies the Lifeboat Road carpark
on what were probably originally Asparagus fields.
To the south, a square pine plantation on top of a 3-4m-high plateau survived sandwinning.
On its southern flank, next to Lifeboat Road, is a level area which was probably
one of the first to be excavated for sand. This is now heavily Rabbit-grazed fixed-dune
dominated by Red Fescue (Festuca rubra) and Common Bent (Agrostis capillaris) with a
diversity of herbaceous plants, including Common Stork’s-bill (Erodium cicutarium), the
nationally scarce Sticky Stork’s-bill (E. lebelii) and their rare hybrid Erodium x
anaristatum, known only from coastal dunes in Wales and South Lancashire.
Immediately west of the pine block is a dune hollow, a blow-out in 1978, which was
deepened to produce a Natterjack Toad scrape about 20m in diameter in the 1980s (no.
10). This now contains a few slack plants, the only notable species being Small-fruited
Yellow-sedge. It has not been used by Natterjacks for some time but, in wet years, has
been known to support dragonflies.
Moving north of the wooded part of the quarry is a low-lying, almost level area traversed
by footpaths. Its vegetation consists of a mosaic of Grey Poplar scrub (some recently cut
but re-sprouting), patches of Creeping Willow and acid fixed-dune grassland, dominated
by Common Bent and Sand Sedge (Carex arenaria). The latter also supports the notable
species Smooth Cat’s-ear (Hypochaeris glabra) (Smith 2007a) and Sticky Stork’s-bill.
Where pedestrian trampling has kept the turf short, there is heavy Rabbit grazing. This
area slopes upwards to the north by about 1.5m to a near-level plateau of open, partially-