Crockham Hill Jul/Aug 2025 Newsletter - Flipbook - Page 31
Scrub management
Crockham Hill Wildlife Society (with help from Kent Wildlife Trust)
Scrub is the description of land when trees start to invade a grassy area. It
usually happens when livestock haven't grazed the land down too much.
Scrub is vegetation dominated by shrubs and saplings, varying from
scattered to a closed canopy, usually less than 5m tall but sometimes with
scattered trees.
Many of our native species have evolved to thrive in mixed farmland
landscapes such as arable land, hedgerows, pasture, hay meadows, field
margins, scrub, woodland and wetlands which provide them with the best
chances of finding areas which meet all their requirements for nesting,
shelter and sources of food. Scrub is a vital component within these, and
there are over 450 rare and threatened species of plant, insect and bird
which thrive in scrub.
Before WW2 scrub provided a much-valued asset for local communities
who would use it for fuel, animal fodder, tools, medicine, bedding, wine
making, basketry, dyes, and furniture making. Most of these have stopped,
and scrub has often been allowed to decline and become woodland.
The best management of scrub is to rotate cutting so there is a mix of
young and mature scrub; this ensures more structural diversity and will
appeal to a wider variety of species. Low intensity management at regular
intervals is generally better and easier than major work every few years.
Scrub generally takes about 15 years to reach maturity so you could, for
example, coppice 3/15th every third year. Then leave some bare ground
and dead wood to increase the range of micro-habitats and always leave
some scrub for shelter and food and ensure there are patches of tall and
short vegetation in and around it.
Make sure the scrub links up with surrounding habitats such as hedgerows,
and woodland and provides wildlife corridors so that species disperse
through the landscape. Try to control invasive species such as
rhododendron, which have very little value for wildlife. Do not cut during
the bird breeding season (try to do the work between November and
February) and dispose of cut material by stacking into piles of deadwood
and work well away from hibernating areas.
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