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 canopy, with ash,
wych elm and alder present in damper or nutrient-rich areas. On more calcareous
soils, ash predominates with locally frequent wych elm and small-leaved lime.
The UK has an estimated 130,000 – 160,000 ha of ancient semi-natural mixed
broadleaf woodland.
There are five main types of lowland mixed broadleaf woodland as identified by the
National Vegetation Classification. In brief, these are: W8 and W9 Ash woodlands;
W10 and W11 Oak woodlands; W13 Yew woodlands.
1.2 Local
There are no estimates of the total area, status and condition of lowland mixed
broadleaf woodland according to NVC communities. However, areas of woodland
prior to The Mersey Forest commencement give the following area of broadleaf
woodland: Knowsley 573ha; Liverpool 166ha; St Helens 283ha; Sefton 294ha.
From the 1993 Mersey Forest survey, mixed broadleaf woodland is the most common
type in North Merseyside (broadleaf 604 ha; mixed woodland (conifer and broadleaf)
454 ha; conifer 166 ha.) The Sefton Coast Woodland and Scrub Strategy identified
227 ha of conifer woodland.
North Merseyside has at least twelve ancient semi-natural woodlands, although this
figure does need confirmation. Most of the above can be classed as W8-W11
woodlands. Liverpool 3 sites; Knowsley 1 site; St Helens 7 sites; Sefton 1 site.
W10 type woodland is likely to be the most common woodland type. There are no
examples of yew woodlands (W13) in North Merseyside.
1 Current status
1.1 National
In the UK lowland raised bogs are a particular feature of cool, rather humid regions
such as the north-west lowlands of England, the central and north-east lowlands of
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, but remnants also occur in some southern and
eastern localities, for example Somerset, South Yorkshire and Fenland.
In its pristine form, the habitat is ombrogenous, i.e. fed only by rainwater. Sphagnum
mosses are the principal peat-forming species on natural UK lowland raised peat
bogs, and their dominance in the living vegetation layer gives a bog its ‘spongy’
surface.
Peat accumulation preserves a unique and irreplaceable record of plant and animal
remains and some atmospheric deposits from which it is possible to assess historical
patterns of vegetation, climate change and human land use.
There has been a dramatic decline in the area of lowland raised bog since around the
turn of the nineteenth century, from an original c. 95,000 ha to c. 6,000 ha at present.
England’s resource has reduced from 37,500 ha to 500 ha, a loss of 98.6%.
1.2 Local
The lowland raised bogs of the Mersey Basin continue across Merseyside, West
Lancashire and western Greater Manchester with an estimated 10,728 ha in the mid
nineteenth century. By the middle of the twentieth century approximately 2,804 ha
remained, most of which had been significantly modified. By the start of the 21st
century all of Merseyside, Lancashire and Greater Manchester only has 499.6 ha of
relic mossland habitat still supporting semi-natural Bog vegetation.
Only two actively growing bogs still survive in North Merseyside with abundant peat
forming Sphagnum moss, Acornfield Plantation, Kirkby, and Sutton & Bold Mosses
(Colliers Moss), St Helens, covering an area of less than 5.1 ha.
In addition, some 16ha of drained but relatively unmodified areas of habitat survive at
King’s Moss, part of the once extensive Holiday Moss
Other small patches of degraded bogs remain, mostly in agricultural use, although
many have been used for peat extraction and used as landfill sites. However of these
peatlands, 66 ha of mossland with semi-natural bog vegetation (M25, Molinia
caerulea-Potentilla erecta mire and W4, Betula pubescens-Molinia caerulea
woodland) still occur in the area.
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 widespread in lowland England through the
medieval age until the early 19th Century, when many were lost through enclosure.
This decline has continued into the 20th Century. Although regionally important
examples are scattered throughout the country (such as Dunham Park in Cheshire)
there are no reliable statistics on the extent of the resource. The best estimate is of 10-
20,000ha given in the UK Biodiversity Steering group report.
Sites are frequently of historic, cultural and landscape importance and are outstanding
not just nationally but at a European level. This is a Priority Habitat in the UK
Biodiversity Action Plan.
In NVC terms the habitat is most closely associated with W10 & W16 Oak woodland
& W14 & W15 Beech woodlands although other action plan priority habitats may be
present as part of the overall structure.
Four broad types of site with varying origin are included in the UK HAP as follows:
- Those derived from medieval forests and emparkments, wooded commons and
parks and pastures containing trees.
- Parklands originating in the 19th Century but containing a vestige of older
trees from a former landscape.
- Neglected and unmanaged wood pasture with veteran trees in a matrix of
secondary woodland, or scrub.
- Parkland or wood pasture that has been converted to other land uses but where
surviving veteran trees are of nature conservation interest.
This habitat is important for a number of priority species including invertebrates such
as saproxylic beetles, rare lichens and fungi. Trees also provide roost sites and
foraging areas for bats and hole-nesting birds. The principal tree species found are
Pedunculate Oak, Beech, Ash, Wych Elm, Sweet Chestnut and Lime. Dead wood
both standing and fallen is an essential component of this habitat.
1.2 Local
There are no estimates of the total area, status or condition of wood pasture and
parkland habitats in North Merseyside, and the majority of sites are likely to fall into
the final three classification categories of the UK HAP.
Examples of this habitat type under varying regimes of management from neglected
through to intensive include Halsnead Park and Knowsley Park in Knowsley, Ince
Blundell and Meols Hall in Sefton, Croxteth and Calderstones Parks, Sefton Park,
Speke Hall Liverpool and Bold Heath and Sherdley Park in St Helens. Calderstones
Park contains an important example of a veteran tree, The Allerton Oak.
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 or more of the following criteria:
Habitats of high conservation importance. Ponds that meet criteria under
Annex 1 of the Habitats Directive.
- Ponds supporting Red Data Book species, BAP species, species fully protected
under the Wildlife and Countryside Act Schedule 5 and 8, Habitats Directive
Annex II species, one Nationally Scarce wetland plant species, or three
Nationally Scarce aquatic invertebrate species.
- Ponds supporting exceptional populations or numbers of key species. Based
on (i) criteria specified in guidelines for the selection of biological SSSIs
(currently amphibians and dragonflies only), and (ii) exceptionally rich sites
for plants or invertebrates (i.e. supporting 30 wetland plant species or 50
aquatic macroinvertebrate species).
- Ponds of high ecological quality: Ponds classified in the top PSYM1 category
(“high”) for ecological quality (i.e. having a PSYM score 75)
- Other important ponds: Individual ponds or groups of ponds with a limited
geographic distribution recognised as important because of their age, rarity of
type or landscape context e.g. pingos, duneslack ponds, machair ponds.
With respect to this local HAP, all ponds are covered, regardless of the above criteria.
However it is useful to identify the high status ponds in the area to help prioritise
action. Ponds and other standing open waters are usually classified according to their
nutrient status. There are three main types: nutrient-poor (oligotrophic); nutrient-rich
(eutrophic) and intermediate (mesotrophic). Gradations between these main types
occur.
Identifying ponds from habitat inventories can be problematic because they are often
dealt with under broader categories e,g. in Phase 1 they are usually recorded as G1
Standing Water (along with other types of water body) and in the NVC they can be
recorded variously as aquatic, swamp & fen communities, OV28-OV35 and others.
1 PSYM is the Predictive SYstem for Multimetrics model used to get an ecological quality assessment
of a pond.
1.2 Local
From work by the NM BAP manager, based OS data in 2007, there are estimated to
be 2069 ponds in North Merseyside, which break down by area as follows:
- St Helens 876 ponds.
- Sefton 501 ponds.
- Knowsley 456 ponds.
- Liverpool 236 ponds.
In general most ponds and standing open waters in North Merseyside are small and
tend toward being nutrient-rich. Many ponds were made for agricultural use. Some
are several hundred years old and are of considerable antiquity in parts of Knowsley
and St Helens, also potentially in Liverpool and Sefton. Ponds were also created for
industrial use or as a consequence of mining.
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 most water conditions including brackish waters, and on both peat
and mineral soils. Typical NVC communities include S4 (Phragmites australis
swamp and reed-beds) in brackish waters and S25 / S26 (Phragmites australis-
Eupatorium cannabinum tall-herb fen/Phragmites australis-Urtica dioica tall-herb
fen) in fresh waters.
Nationally there are around 5000ha of Phragmites reedbed. A survey carried out by
RSPB in 1993 showed that of the 926 sites identified, most were fragmented into
areas of less than 1 ha.
In NW England, extensive reedbeds are extremely rare although small stands are
relatively frequent around lake shores and along the banks of rivers and canals.
Regionally important examples are associated with lowland water bodies and wet
hollows throughout the region.
1.2 Local
In 2003, LWT collated the extent of all reedbed habitat in Merseyside giving us
excellent information on the extent of this habitat and meeting the targets of the first
edition of this HAP for baseline information.
A total of 23.715 ha of reedbed was identified in North Merseyside; 17.615ha in
blocks and 6.1ha alongside ditches and other watercourses.
St Helens holds 8.7ha spread over 11 individual sites, none of which are linear. The
largest of its sites is 4 ha at Sankey Valley Park, this being the largest reedbed on
Merseyside. The Bold Moss complex is also very important, with 4.2 ha in total. The
reedbed at this site is fragmented within a habitat mosaic of wet woodland, wet
grassland, open water, heathland and bog.
Sefton has a total area of 11.945ha, approximately half the regions resource, at 11
individual sites, the largest areas are those at Rimrose Valley over two sites – 1.5ha at
Brookvale LNR and 2.5ha at Fulwood Way (Rimrose Valley Marsh). In the Sefton
Village/Lunt area a matrix of ditches adds up to 4 ha of reed – a substantial portion of
the Sefton resource.
Liverpool has 2.87ha of reedbed over 10 sites, the largest being 0.8ha at Fazakerley.
Knowsley has just one site – 0.2ha at Netherley Brook.
In North Merseyside, most original Phragmites reedbed habitat has been lost, due to
urban development and land drainage for agriculture.
Targets to maintain the quality of the existing resource have been progressed by such
measures as the management plan for Colliers Moss (see Lowland Raised Bogs),
which includes provision for reedbed and the funding provided by the Environment
Agency and Atlantic Gateway to Sefton Coast and Countryside Service to restore 4.4
hectares of reedbed at Rimrose Valley Country Park. The Environment Agency also
provided ecological survey and management advice on the reedbeds and Water Voles
issues.
New reedbeds are being created for a variety of purposes such as water quality
improvement and encouragement of wildlife. Many of these are less than 1ha in size
and are isolated from each other. A small number of habitat creation projects resulted
in around 1.6 hectares of new reedbed between 2002 and 2005.
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 of a limited number of salt-tolerant plants adapted to
regular immersion by the tides. At the lowest level pioneer plants can withstand up to
600 tides per year whereas upper marsh plants can only tolerate a few tides per year.
Saltmarsh communities are affected by many factors such as climatic differences from
west to east, sediment types, decreasing salinities and land management, especially
grazing. For example, on traditionally grazed sites, saltmarsh vegetation is shorter
and dominated by grasses. Saltmarshes on the west coast tend to differ in species and
community composition from those on the east coast.
Grazing by domestic stock is traditional for many saltmarshes, creating a sward
attractive to wintering and passage waterfowl. Less intensive grazing is better for
breeding waders in summer.
Saltmarshes are a very important resource for wading birds and wildfowl. Acting as
high tide refuges for waterfowl, breeding sites for terns, gulls and waders and a source
of food for passerine birds in autumn and winter. In winter, large flocks of geese and
ducks rely on saltmarshes.
A 1989 survey estimated the total extent of saltmarsh at 45,500 ha. England has
approximately 32,500 ha, Scotland 6,747 ha, Wales 6,089 ha and Northern Ireland
215 ha. This resource is mainly found in the major estuaries of north-west England
and in Wales. It is estimated that at the mean high water line, 24% of the English
coastline, 11% of the Welsh coastline and 3% of the Scottish coastline consists of
saltmarsh.
1.2 Local
In North Merseyside, most coastal saltmarsh is found on the Ribble Estuary to the
north of Southport, between Southport and Ainsdale, and on the Mersey Estuary at
Oglet, Liverpool. Small areas also exist on the Alt Estuary at Hightown and in the
Seaforth Docks.
Very large areas of the saltmarsh in each estuary have been reclaimed for other land
uses including agriculture, industry, and development. No areas of saltmarsh in North
Merseyside are now subject to grazing by livestock, but the Birkdale Green Beach is
grazed by Rabbits.
The original extent of saltmarsh in Merseyside has been considerably reduced by land
claim. NVC surveys of the Ribble & Alt (2003) and the Sefton Coast (2004)
identified 447ha of land with a primary classification of Saltmarsh within the area
corresponding to the North Merseyside LBAP as supplied by Natural England in
2007. If the area is limited to the LA boundaries (principally Sefton) then the area is
reduced to 348ha. The extent of the Liverpool section of the Mersey Estuary is
unknown but judging from aerial photographs taken in 2005, is likely to be in the
region of 20-30ha.
In addition there is estimated to be some 138ha of coastal grazing marsh at Marshside
in Sefton. Coastal and Floodplain Grazing Marsh is a UK Priority Habitat for which
North Merseyside does not, at the time of writing (2008), have a separate HAP and
will therefore be considered within this HAP.
1 Current status
1.1 National
This habitat covers all woodland and scrub on damp substrates, including carr
woodland around water bodies and in hollows, floodplain woodlands, woodland on
remnant raised bogs and the drier parts of basins and valleys and woods on wet
flushes.
Wet woodlands are found throughout the UK. They occur mainly as small woods or
as localised patches in larger woods; large wet woods are extremely rare. Some
examples are difficult to delimit in the field as they occur as small patches in
depressions and along drainage lines which grade imperceptibly into drier ground.
A crude estimate of the total area of wet woodland is 50,000 – 75,000 ha, of which
25,000 – 50,000 ha is ancient woodland. Many more recent semi-natural wet
woodlands are due to succession from wetland and aquatic habitats.
There are seven types of wet woodland identified in the UK by the National
Vegetation Classification. In brief, these are: W1 and W2 Grey Willow woodlands;
W3 Bay Willow woodlands; W4 Downy Birch woodlands; W5, W6 and W7 Alder
woodlands. Wet woodland is a priority habitat in the UK BAP.
1.2 Local
There are no estimates of the total area, distribution, status and condition of wet
woodland for North Merseyside.
North Merseyside has no example of wet woodland which is of international or
national importance (although more research is needed on the Birkdale Green Beach
Alders – see below). North Merseyside has little wet woodland, yet wet woodland
was a significant habitat prior to drainage of the mosslands.
Wet woodland occurs in each district although the areas are small. Examples include:
Red Brow Wood, St Helens; Mull Wood, Liverpool; alder carr in Ainsdale NNR,
Sefton; Acornfield Plantation, Knowsley. Since 2000, a highly unusual linear alder
woodland has sprung up on old strandlines at the landward edge of Birkdale Green
Beach. Much of this woodland occurs in young dune slack and is therefore a type of
wet woodland.
