Fen Management Handbook - Scottish Natural Heritage

Health and safety requirements associated with ash disposal include legislative
requirement for the operator to wear full safety equipment. Further information on
incineration methods is provided under scrub management.
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Check with Natural England, CCW, SNH or NIEA whether burning
would be consented on a legally protected site.
6.5 Scrub management
Specialised burning crates
developed on the Whitlaw
Mosses in the Scottish
Borders to burn vegetation
cut as part of conservation
management - see Case
Study 6.1 for more details
(A. McBride).
Traditionally, scrub was kept in check by grazing and mowing. Without such
active management, open fen vegetation can rapidly become colonised by scrub.
Changes in agricultural management practices at a national scale in recent decades
have resulted in many fen communities converting to scrub and wet woodland.
Rapid colonisation of
downy birch and willow
scrub on Drumcrow Fen
in Northern Ireland as a
result of abandonment of
peat cutting and removal of
grazing. This is threatening
the diverse range of fen
habitats and important
invertebrate assemblage
(B. Hamill).
Tree removal may reduce water lost by evapo-transpiration and the interception of
rainfall, which can be particularly important in summer, when precipitation tends to
be lower and evaporation high. In one study the rates of evapo-transpiration from
reedbeds were found to be around 98% of that from open water, whilst evapotranspiration
from wet woodland was between 89% and 164%. Modelling the
hydrological budget of the site is the only way to be sure whether the removal of a
large stand of trees is likely to increase the height of the water-table.