Tag Archives: 2008

Habitat Action Plan: Conifer Woodland

1 Current status 1.1 National Approximately 7% (1.5 million hectares) of Great Britain is covered by conifer woodland. Ownership is evenly split between Forest Enterprise and the private sector. Stands are usually single species with some 40% being Sitka Spruce. However mixed plantations are common at the forest scale and older thinned stands often develop… Read More »

Habitat Action Plan: Field Boundaries

Field Boundaries contain a large proportion of the biodiversity in arable landscapes. For the purposes of this plan, the term ‘field boundaries’ refers to boundary structures such as hedgerows, hedgebanks, drains and ditches. It also includes field margins and buffer strips, lying between the crop and the field boundary, along with infield structures such as… Read More »

Habitat Action Plan: Lowland Mixed Broad-leaf Woodland

1 Current status 1.1 National Typically, lowland mixed broadleaf woodland is associated with a wide range of fertile, moist loams and clays. Lowland mixed broadleaf woodland overlaps with several other woodland types. Mixed broadleaf woodland has a maximum of 10% conifers in the tree canopy. On moderately base-poor soils oak and birch predominate in the… Read More »

Habitat Action Plan: Lowland Wood-pasture and Parkland

1 Current status 1.1 National Lowland wood pastures and parklands are the products of historic land management systems, and represent a vegetation structure rather than a typical plant community. Their structure normally consists of large open grown high forest trees or pollards in a mix of grassland or other habitats. Wood pastures and parklands were… Read More »

Habitat Action Plan: Ponds

1 Current status 1.1 National Ponds were originally included in the NM BAP as a ‘local’ habitat, but the 2007 national priority list review added Ponds as a full UK BAP priority habitat. UK BAP Priority Habitat ponds are defined as permanent and seasonal standing water bodies up to 2ha in extent which meet one… Read More »

Habitat Action Plan: Reedbeds

1 Current status 1.1 National Reedbeds are wetlands dominated by stands of Common Reed Phragmites australis, where the water table is above ground level for most of the year. Reedbeds often include areas of open water and ditches. Small areas of wet grassland and carr woodland may also be associated with them. Reedbeds occur in… Read More »

Habitat Action Plan: Saltmarsh

1 Current status 1.1 National Coastal saltmarshes comprise the upper, vegetated portions of intertidal mudflats. Saltmarshes are usually restricted to comparatively sheltered locations in estuaries, saline lagoons, behind barrier islands, at the heads of sea lochs and on beach plains. The development of saltmarsh is dependent on the presence of intertidal mudflats. Saltmarsh vegetation consists… Read More »