Brown Moss
Update from Shaun Burkey:
Hello Friends of Brown Moss,
Winter is almost over, thank goodness.
No doubt you will have noticed some much needed and long overdue habitat management work these last few months for those who have visited the site. Our valued partners Natural England were able to fund the work to save the numerous pools on site from being completely lost to encroaching woodland. Although trees spreading is a natural process it is not always beneficial to specialist habitats such as Brown Moss which over many centuries has evolved to support extremely rare and fragile wildlife. So, whilst the aftermath of felling looks awful, it is short lived and the site will quickly recover.
Last year I attended a talk given by another valued partner, Freshwater Habitats Trust, https://www.wcl.org.uk/freshwaterhabitatstrust.asp , who rate Brown Moss as one of the country’s flagship sites. Pete Case of FHT explained why Brown Moss was so important, the rare species found there and the extremely delicate conditions needed for their survival. This got me thinking that we really should produce a colourful leaflet to introduce people to Brown Moss from the perspective of the precious jewels of nature that are still managing to hold on but are not necessarily obvious to the visitor. Would anyone wish to help with the production of this leaflet? Mags Cousins is our ecological expert from Natural England and she has offered to help and I can put aside some of my budget to have them printed. To get the ball rolling please see my notes which were taken during Pete Case’s talk, sorry if I missed anything Pete.
Best wishes
Shaun
Shaun Burkey
Country Parks & Sites Officer (North)
The Wardens Bungalow,
Outdoor Recreation,
Shropshire Council,
Swan Hill, Ellesmere, SY12 0DQ