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APPENDIX 2: REPORT OF 1990 INVERTEBRATE SURVEY
The following is taken from Heaver & Eversham (1991):
DIGEST OF KEY CONCLUSIONS
Results:
Three of the species found are now known only from Thorne and Hatfield Moors in Britain. Two are
also considered to be internationally endangered.
The survey has produced 14 Red Data Book species, 34 Nationally Scarce species, and dozens of
regionally rare or local species. Many were new to northern England.
Habitats:
There are many species which are confined to one very specific type of microsite. The whole fauna
can be conserved only by maintaining the full range of peat surfaces, in particular, the small-scale
mosaic of bare peat, leaf litter, hare's-tail hummocks and the full range of Sphagnum microhabitats.
Numerous species are found only in areas which have been unworked for upwards of fifty years: they
have not yet made the move of just a few metres into more recently vegetated areas that adjoin their
habitat. These species are obviously unlikely to survive any attempt at translocation, and their only
safe future is to continue to survive where they are already established.
Retaining as much of the long-abandoned wet peat surface as possible is an overriding priority for the
survival of the Moors' invertebrates.
Management:
The top priority for management, on the NNR and elsewhere on the moors, must be to raise the water
table, as a matter of urgency.
Evaluation:
The ranking of the four peatland vegetation blocks on Thorne Moors, both by the total of rare species,
and by the number whose survival depends on the block, is:
T51-52-56: Crowle: T49-55-59: NNR
(See maps in Heaver & Eversham (1991) for explanation of the compartment numbering; none of
these areas is included in the proposed denotification, but this is partly because of the restrictions
placed on the 1990 survey by Fisons: actively worked areas had to be excluded from the survey)
A strong 'sandy heathland' element in the fauna of Hatfield Moors distinguishes it from all parts of
Thorne Moors.
Restoration:
No areas of milled peat surface have yet been abandoned long enough for its colonisation to be
monitored.
For the sand and gravel working adjoining Hatfield Moors, dry restoration to heathland is preferable to
experimental wet restoration.
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