Suffolk County Council’s Workforce Development Team recently spent a day helping the Coast & Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) improve Church Common at Snape as a key feature and biodiversity hotspot in this Protected Landscape.
Workforce Development Team members joined Neil Lister, AONB Countryside Projects Officer, and colleague Greg Chester-Parsons, AONB New to Nature Placement, to clear bracken that was threatening to swamp the few remaining clumps of Heather on this Sandlings Heath.
The weather at ‘waking up time’ was not that promising with dull skies and rain. Happily, the weather improved as the day rolled by with warmer temperatures, sunshine and a lovely breeze.
The Team also built some ‘Reptagons’, luxury homes for the reptiles that live on or visit Church Common. These were built like large gateaux using layers of twigs and cut bracken. We hope the residents will move in soon!
As the name suggests, heathland makes up a special part of the Coast & Heaths AONB and the Suffolk Sandlings is one of our most important landscapes. An area of grassland, gorse, scattered trees, heather and, very importantly, bare ground, found on some of the poorest soils in eastern England, the Sandlings support rare birds and a range of characteristic heathland plants and animals.
Heathlands have become one of the rarest and most threatened habitats in the world. Britain today has 58,000 hectares of lowland heathland, which is about 20% of the total world resource. Over 90% of the once continuous area of Sandlings’ heath present in medieval times has been lost.
Fortunately, the importance of the heaths is now well understood and all significant remaining Sandlings are protected and many are under some form of conservation management, now including Church Common.
The AONB would love to hear from any group of volunteers interested in helping to improve the nationally important Coast and Heaths landscape. Suffolk County Council offers up to two paid volunteering days a year to employees wishing help in Suffolk.
For more information, contact AONB Countryside Projects Officer, Neil Lister, at [email protected].
