Fen Management Handbook - Scottish Natural Heritage

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8.1 Summary of management options and techniques for addressing enrichment. Summary of main options for managing fen nutrient enrichment in relation to source and pathway. 172 Nutrient source/ pathway Atmospheric - e.g. factory, poultry farm Surface flooding and other pointsource impacts, including water affected by sewage plant, road drainage or intensive agriculture Overland flow e.g. fertiliser and eroded soil from farmland in catchment Groundwater e.g. intensive agriculture, septic tanks, sewage treatment works Historical nutrient accumulation within fen soil Reduce source Beyond scope of individual fen managers – needs regulatory control. Regulatory control, enforcement and incentives - e.g. Water Level Management Plans, AMP process, Planning System, Capital Works investment. Targeted / limited fertiliser application. Application of agri-environment and other land management measures. Habitat reversion through application of higher-tier environmental land management prescriptions. Contour ploughing. Regulatory control. Land management options include better targeting or limiting of fertiliser application on surrounding farmland; address problems with septic tanks etc. Remove enriched soil through turf removal or soil stripping Management options Block nutrient pathway Not generally possible, though marginal tree belts may play a role. Prevent water from reaching fen surface if source cannot be tackled and water is not essential in water budget terms. Dredge enriched sediment from rivers and other sources. Install sediment traps Employ constructed wetlands Establish buffer zones – consider earth banks/ bunds Remove nutrient enriched sediment from feeder ditches (slubbing) Install sediment trap Employ constructed wetlands for points of focussed runoff. Probably beyond scope of individual fen managers Soil inversion but very difficult and can create future problems NOT RECOMMENDED Manage nutrient impact within the fen Grazing, cutting, vegetation and litter removal, turf removal, soil stripping Grazing, cutting, vegetation and litter removal
Summary table of key techniques for preventing or reducing nutrient enrichment Limitations / less appropriate sites Appropriate sites Effectiveness / strengths Action Timing Rationale for use Technique All site types Can be expensive, requiring capital expenditure. Year round Very effective. Addressing an acute farm-yard problem can effectively shut-off in one go major nutrient sources. Wide range of potential actions, including: Reduces nutrient addition to the catchment and its export to the wetland. Wider catchment management Difficult to enforce. Agri-environment and other land management incentive schemes. Habitat reversion schemes (e.g.improved grassland to semi-natural grassland, heathland, woodland etc) .through application of high tier agri-environment options. Farm-yard infrastructure improvements such as separating clean (roof drainage) water from foul (farm yards, silage effluent) All site types. Can result in long-term management agreement costs. Any time Generally regarded as effective, though often used on a precautionary basis without much actually evidence that the technique has worked. Definition of low or zero nutrient application over an area of at least 10 m width. Ideally combined with management of rough vegetation in buffer zone to help take-up nutrients and/or trap soil particles, or low earth bunds to ‘filter’ water. Buffer zones Creates a zone of low or zero nutrient addition around the site margins, together with measures to encourage nutrient uptake/retention within buffer. Very wide range Dry areas for lie-up at night desirable. Fencing usually needed to focus grazing where it is needed. The wettest sites may be ungrazable. Sustainable and potentially cost-neutral or even profitable but labour intensive moving stock. Aids good vegetation structure and composition. Can be year round, but usually April to end October. Grazing Vegetation Grazing by animals (preferably accumulates cattle, ponies or hardy sheep). nutrients from the Animals need to be moved daily soil. Removal of for effective nutrient removal. the vegetation thus enables some nutrient off take. 173
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The Fen Management Handbook Edited
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Acknowledgements Production of the
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1. Introduction and Basic Principle
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Estimates of the original coverage
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Guiding principles for fen manageme
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Section 12: Fens from an Economic P
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2.1 Diversity and conservation sign
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Part of Cropple How Mire in Cumbria
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The moss flora of base-rich springs
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Bog bean growing in a transitional
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Mesotrophic openwater transition fe
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Water shrews (Neomys fodiens), also
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2.4.1 Vegetated margins of open wat
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2.4.3 Grazed or cut fen in floodpla
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2.6 Amphibians Amphibians are depen
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The mud snail Omphiscola glabra (12
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Old trees and dead wood Continuous
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Vascular plants Flat-sedge Blysmus
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3. Understanding Fen Hydrology Quan
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Groundwater discharge to fens is us
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Water Table 3.4.1.4 Spring fed fen
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3.5 Factors determining fen type 3.
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- Flooding - frequency and magnitud
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3.7 Further information and advice
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Groundwater inflow. Groundwater lev
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It is likely that groundwater disch
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Case Study 3.3 Hydro(geo)logical im
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4. Understanding Fen Nutrients Nutr
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nutrients. For example, at high con
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4.2.1 Groundwater and surface water
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4.2.3 Point and diffuse sources of
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Area of acute nutrient enrichment o
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4.4 Classifying water chemistry usi
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4.6 Identifying nutrient enrichment
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Negative indicator species for diff
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Many of the floristic changes which
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Case Study 4.1 Understanding Fen Nu
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5.1 Why do fens need management? In
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5.2 Checklist of key stages in deci
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5.3.3 Scale Although fens are linke
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5.4 Site survey to establish what i
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variability and how these relate to
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- The fauna which inhabit the fen c
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- Prioritise objectives to achieve
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inundation are less likely to be sp
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5.13 References Barsoum, N., Anders
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Case Study 5.2 Fen Management and R
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- 14km of livestock fencing install
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Case Study 5.3 Fen Management and R
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6. Fen Management and Restoration -
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Both the benefits and potentially l
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Cattle forced by flooding to the ed
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At low/medium stocking density, cat
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Goats have narrow muzzles and a fle
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Fens usually feature a range of dif
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Excessive poaching where cattle hav
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extensive areas of wetlands which w
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‘Soft track’ machines, such as
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The design of the pipeline allows f
Page 119 and 120: Protocol for burning standing reedb
Page 121 and 122: Long rotation scrub clearance may b
Page 123 and 124: ‘Bird-eye’ and incineration A t
Page 125 and 126: 6.7 Restoring fen meadow Many forme
Page 127 and 128: Current Management The current mana
Page 129 and 130: Case Study 6.2 Fen Vegetation Manag
Page 131 and 132: species diversity of wetland passer
Page 133 and 134: The temptation to burn large areas
Page 135 and 136: Outcomes In the eight years that th
Page 137 and 138: Anglesey sites is now underway supp
Page 139 and 140: Close grazed short sward of sedges
Page 141 and 142: Turf cutting Turf cutting has been
Page 143 and 144: 7.1 A framework to assist decision
Page 145 and 146: Surface water level change e.g. - a
Page 147 and 148: and the surface to acidify, resulti
Page 149 and 150: Smaller excavations are preferable
Page 151 and 152: Morton Lochs, which extend to appro
Page 153 and 154: Although shallow excavations are pr
Page 155 and 156: At Leighton Moss in Lancashire, are
Page 157 and 158: Excavating spoil within the area to
Page 159 and 160: uilt dams can only be formed in dit
Page 161 and 162: Case Study 7.1 Fen Water Management
Page 169: 8. Managing Fen Nutrient Enrichment
Page 173 and 174: 8.2 Managing the source of nutrient
Page 175 and 176: Marginal interceptor ditch at Cors
Page 177 and 178: 8.3.4 Bund creation In some cases i
Page 179 and 180: emoval or soil stripping, both of w
Page 181 and 182: 8.5 Monitoring nutrient reduction D
Page 183 and 184: Recent photo of stripped surface sh
Page 185 and 186: 9.1 Scope for fen creation The Grea
Page 187 and 188: 9.3 What type of fen? New fens can
Page 189 and 190: 9.5 Restraints on fen creation Plan
Page 191 and 192: 9.6 Check list of issues to conside
Page 193 and 194: 9.7 Site assessment Planning and de
Page 195 and 196: LIDAR maps can provide a general un
Page 197 and 198: generally more acidic than silts an
Page 199 and 200: Site visits and careful assessment
Page 201 and 202: 9.8.4 Plastic membranes On sites wi
Page 203 and 204: Use of seed bombs ‘Seed bombs’
Page 205 and 206: Experience has shown that the most
Page 207 and 208: 9.10.2 Creation of niches for plant
Page 209 and 210: Meade, R. & Wheeler, B.D. 2007. Rai
Page 211 and 212: - On-going measurement of the effec
Page 213 and 214: with appropriate training. Providin
Page 215 and 216: 10.3 Biological monitoring techniqu
Page 217 and 218: Undesirable species for key NVC com
Page 219 and 220: 10.3.3 Vegetation Mapping An initia
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It is good practise to record with
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10.4 Biological monitoring techniqu
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for Ornithology, the Bat Conservati
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Box 2: Construction, installation a
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10.8 Monitoring surface water flows
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- Phytometric tests measure how wel
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Storage of data and information on
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period, simply because it is design
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Another consideration is the likely
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11.1 An historical perspective Poll
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Inviting volunteer involvement in f
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11.3.3 Stakeholders ‘Stakeholders
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have been designated under access a
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11.6.4 Boardwalks Boardwalks are no
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11.6.5 Water borne access Waterways
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- Explore opportunities to stimulat
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Case Study 11.1 Fens and people - S
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Case Study 11.2 Fens and People - H
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12. Fens from an Economic Perspecti
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12.1.3 Biomass energy and Biofuels
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12.2 Environmental regulation 12.2.
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the peat carbon store is depleted t
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Another mechanism for funding wetla
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Whitlaw Mosses in Scotland (see det
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12.8 References Dickie, I., Hughes,
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Nitrogen fixation conversion of gas
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Appendix III - List of species refe
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Table 1 - Mammal species associated
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280 Bittern Botaurus stellaris All
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Grasshopper Warbler 282 Locustella
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Table 4 - Fish species associated w
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Table 5 - Legally protected inverte
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288 Community Topogenous fens S24 P
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290 Community S8 Scirpus lacustris
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292 Community M11 Carex demissa - S
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294 Community M23 Juncus effusus /
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Appendix V - Legal and regulatory c
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298 Type of Works Guidance for UK C
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Appendix VI - Fen management for br
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However, three of the four species
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Sensitive periods Harvest mice bree
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species like bittern, and then drop
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Sensitive periods Species breed wit
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Great Crested Newt Great crested ne
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Appendix VIII - Fen management for
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Mollusca (snails, slugs and mussels
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Other than for rare or exceptional
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There is usually some degree of sub
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Management requirements for protect
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Appendix IX - Further reading Secti
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Koerselman, W., Bakker, S.A. & Blom
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Section 5: Fen Management and Resto
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Patzelt, A, Wild, U. and Jörg Pfad
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Index A access 103, 110, 190, 226,
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cutting 114 disposal 117 management
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Fen Management Handbook - Scottish Natural Heritage

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