13/04/2019
Kent
County Council has unwittingly destroyed a nationally important roadside nature
reserve (RNR), home to tens of thousands of orchids, as it carried out drainage
ditch clearance works.
Verges at
Blue Bell Hill RNR, just north of Maidstone, were churned up by heavy vehicles
working on the site, in some places down to the chalk.
Owned by
Kent County Council, the verge has been managed by volunteers from Kent
Wildlife Trust for 15 years. As well as 9,000 Pyramidal Orchids and nearly
8,000 Common Spotted Orchids, it was also home to Bee Orchids, the scarce Man
Orchid and a wide range of other special chalk downland flowers. These
attracted a host of pollinating bees, butterflies (20 species, including
Chalkhill Blue) and other insects, which helped support a thriving population of
small mammals as well as Common Lizards and Slow-worms.
A stark contrast: Blue Bell Hill RNR in summer 2018 and spring 2019 (Plantlife).
After
removing some trees from the ditch, the council scraped the bank
smooth. Such intensive works will inevitably mean that much of this
wildlife is lost for good from the site; other species will take years to
recover. At this time of year, the Common Spotted Orchids will have been
beginning to show above ground, ahead of flowering from late May onward.
Dr Trevor
Dines of Plantlife said:
"I worry that I've become immune to 'bad stuff' happening to wild flowers
over the years. But the destruction a few days ago of 17,000 orchids on a road
verge in Kent proved that I'm not.
"This
mistake highlights just how vulnerable and threatened the fragments of our
species-rich grassland have become – whether in a farmers' field or on a road
verge – and the importance of raising our management across the entire network
of road verges rather than just a few vulnerable 'jewels'."
Posts
