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Perhaps you did not realise it, but Whitmoor Common is an example of one of the world's rarest habitats - lowland heath. Although heathland appears to be fairly common in this part of Surrey, the county is actually one of its last strongholds with 13% of England's total remaining heathland. England in turn contains around two-thirds of the world's lowland heathland. Since 1760 we have lost around 85% of our heathland with most losses in the past being due to agriculture and development (towns such as Woking and Bagshot were built on heathland). Unfortunately, this loss is still continuing, although the major threat is now due to the invasion of open heathland by trees and scrub which shade out the heather and other small plants that make up the heathland community. People have used this site for thousands of years. Many features, including linear boundaries, can be dated to the Bronze Age. Until the twentieth century heathland was maintained by people who depended upon it for their own existence. Subsistence farmers eked out a living relying on the heath to provide poor quality grazing for a variety of livestock, including sheep, cattle and geese. Turf and gorse were taken for fuel and heather was used for roof thatch, and even brooms. All this activity removed nutrients from the soil and encouraged the growth of heather at the expense of coarser plants which need a richer soil. More recently fewer and fewer people have relied upon heathland for their livelihood, and in turn the heaths have become invaded by bracken, coarse grasses and trees such as birch and scots pine - all of which compete with, and eventually replace, the heather and other lower growing shrubs. The habitats of the heaths and woods were maintained in this way until around the time of the Second World War, when common land grazing waned (during this period, the common was used for military training, including tank testing). If it is neglected, heathland and its wildlife will disappear under invading shrubs and trees. Grazing is the best way to maintain it. Surrey heathland supports a distinctive flora and fauna, with, for example, local rarities like the insectivorous sundew and the silver-studded blue butterfly, as well as national rarities - the marsh gentian, nightjar and woodlark. Without an active programme to manage heathland by removing trees, bracken and coarse grasses, areas such as Whitmoor Common will lose their open character as they become progressively covered in trees and, ultimately, we will also lose all the plants and animals which make heathland so special. |
