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Fen Management Handbook - Scottish Natural Heritage

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maintained by sluice gates within statutory levels. Rivers Agency maintains many<br />

of the existing drains within the site, mainly to reduce the impact of flooding on<br />

surrounding farmland. Although Rivers Agency is interested in de-designating many<br />

of the watercourses within the site, this can only be progressed where farmland<br />

will not be impacted. Ultimately the management of water levels is not within NIEA<br />

control. The management approach is therefore to work within the constraints on<br />

the site and leave the recovery of lowland raised bog sites to other more viable<br />

properties such as at Peatlands Park.<br />

Techniques<br />

In order to replicate the traditions and practices of the area puddling was done by<br />

hand digging between 1997 and 1999. Since 2000 a small digger was brought<br />

in as a less labour intensive means of creating new pools and deepening existing<br />

hollows. In the most extensive area of fen several deeper holes were dug to act<br />

as refuges for invertebrates if water levels dropped really low during prolonged<br />

dry spells. Many of the new pools were isolated from the other long established<br />

ones so nature was given a helping hand by throwing in a few strands of Bog<br />

Pondweed Potamogeton polygonifolius, which helped accelerate establishment.<br />

Irish Damselfly Coenagrion lunulatum has been observed using pondweeds for egg<br />

laying by landing on a leaf and then submerging backwards down the underwater<br />

stem. Emergent stems of species such as Water Horsetail Equisitum fluviatile are<br />

probably used by emerging nymphs and are certainly used for perching by adults.<br />

Establishing the correct vegetative infrastructure in the pools is therefore likely<br />

to be important for invertebrate species.<br />

Monitoring<br />

The site management team do not usually have time to undertake all of the desired<br />

species and habitat monitoring projects, focusing instead on practical work to prevent<br />

the demise of many notable species. Monitoring is therefore mainly of a casual nature<br />

but some measure of success can quickly be determined by peering into the pools to<br />

observe the ongoing development of aquatic vegetation and observing the activities of<br />

the abundant invertebrate life. NIEA undertake SAC/ASSI feature condition monitoring<br />

of Marsh Fritillary and vegetation. Invertebrate monitoring is contracted out to specialist<br />

surveyors. Some ad hoc monitoring is also undertaken by amateurs e.g. counts of Irish<br />

Damselfly.<br />

Plans for the future<br />

Future plans include:<br />

– Creation of more fire breaks by excavating existing pools and if necessary opening<br />

up new ones.<br />

– Continued land acquisition.<br />

– Drainage investigation to improve hydrological understanding of plots and identify<br />

eutrophication risks.<br />

– Continue to work with Rivers Agency to identify drains that can come out of their<br />

watercourse maintenance schedule and be managed purely for nature conservation.<br />

164<br />

Experimental scrapes 2007

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