West Berkshire Wild Verges

The chief goal of the West Berkshire Wild Verges Project was to identify biodiverse rural verges in West Berkshire and advise the District Authority on how to manage them more sensitively. This was with a view to protect and enhance the corridors of safe passage for wildlife that rural verges often act as.

Simply put, the more biodiversity, the better. The more different plants that grow on a verge, the greater the number of different insects will have their own peculiar needs met. The more insects, the more birds, bats and other small mammals will have food available to them. The bigger, better and more connected our wild spaces are, the more resilient and numerous our native wildlife will be. But how do we encourage and protect, the bees, butterflies, birds, and more that both live on, and commute along our rural verges?

What we're talking about is, in a roundabout way, habitat conservation. As a grand generalisation, the larger an area of habitat is, the more different species can live there (higher biodiversity). Although verges are typically thin strips of land between highways and adjacent land, they can still support a lot of different plants and animals.

The key to keeping a verge habitat in good condition is the timing and number of cuts. Some verges need more cutting, and some less. The amount of cutting very much depends on the type and quality of habitat found on said verge.

The habitats of notably high biodiversity that we find on our rural verges in West Berkshire are Broadleaved Woodland and a variety of different Species-rich Grasslands. Both are very important for wildlife:

• Woodland burgeoning with flowers in the spring before trees come into leaf provides an important post-winter food source for a range of species. This habitat benefits from not having a spring cut. Allowing plants such as Bluebells, Primroses, and Daffodils to provide lots of nectar to pollinators, who reciprocate by pollinating these plants' flowers, enabling them to set seed.
• Grasslands provide food and shelter from the end of spring through the summer, and even way into autumn. Different flowers blooming through the season provides a constant source of food of nectar and pollen. These habitats benefit from reduced cutting from late spring through to the late summer. If they're getting covered in rough vegetation, taking a hay cut in late June can really help keep the rough grassess, Docks and Thistles under control. This also allows the early summer flowers and late summer flowers to complete their annual lifecycles.

If a verge isn't full of biodiversity, how can we help it? For grassy verges, the answer is often simple - reduce soil fertility. There's a strong link between higher soil fertility and lower biodiversity. This comes from the trend for a few big, bullying species (such as Stinging Nettles and Hogweed) to make the most of the soil's fertility and outgrow everything else. This is called 'competitive exclusion'. So, you end up with a verge that's covered in thick, tall vegetation, with few different species of plant. This rough vegetation ends up growing into the road, swamping out footpaths, and becomes a problem for everyone.

The way to solve this issue is to reduce soil fertility in areas where it is possible. Lower soil fertility means that those dominating plants don't have a competitive advantage, and many other species of plant have a chance to grow, flower and set seed. Reducing soil fertility is as simple as treating a verge like a traditionally-managed strip of meadow: taking one or two cuts per year and removing the vegetation leads to a net-loss of nutrients from the soil.

Timing these cuts is important, too, as native wildflowers need to be allowed to set seed. Taking one cut at the end of June and another in September will greatly reduce soil fertility in only a few years. From then, one doesn't need to keep reducing soil fertility, just to keep it in check. As long as there aren't significant nutrient inputs leaching in from the surrounding area, the biodiversity-rich soils will remain as such for many years. These nutrient inputs come chiefly from the deposition of Nitrogen compounds from vehicle emissions, and runoff of organic and inorganic fertilisers from farmland. These effects are not easily managed, but can be mitigated by ditches, banks, and hedges - anything that buffers the verge from, or diverts, those sources of excess fertility.

The 'perfect' verge is akin to a traditional English meadow - naturally short sward (average height of vegetation), and covered in wildflowers and all of the associated invertebrates, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fungi and more. Such species-rich grasslands have suffered an unprecedented decline of 97% in less than a century. Once associated with an older style of pastoral farming, since the intensification and mechanisation of our agricultural systems, it was simply not efficient enough for farmers to be able to make ends meet. Squeezing in some of these now more conservation-associated habitats on our road verges is a small step in preserving some the incredible natural bounty that makes the English Countryside so profoundly special.

Roadside Nature Reserves (RNRs) are verges designated as being very high in biodiversity or of high distinctiveness: filled with many different plants that are found in rare or disappearing habitats. Habitats such as Chalk Downland and Lowland Meadows. These sites require specific management to retain their distinctive species composition.

Sites were originally designated in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with management plans written for each. Sadly, these sites fell out of their specific cutting regime and reverted back to regular cutting. This led many of them to become covered by young trees, scrub, and ruderals. Though not inherently of low value, these areas are just significantly less biodiverse and a lot more common than what the RNRs were originally designated for.

Many of the original Roadside Nature Reserves are so stuffed with fertility and overgrown by a few dominant plants, that they are a little beyond help. Of the original 37 sites, 16 sites retained enough species diversity over the years to remain as RNRs. As part of the West Berkshire Wild Verges Project, these original sites were reassessed, as well as other sites identified as potential RNRs.

Using data from volunteers, staff, stakeholders and members of the public, we were able to identify an additional 20 RNRs, bringing our new total to 36 across the District. Each has its own unique management plan that, if followed, will ensure that these special areas can be protected for future generations.

The chief output from the project is a report that details how West Berkshire Council can keep their good verges good and make some of their other verges better. Reducing cutting where appropriate, and keeping the same level of, or increasing cutting in other areas. Being more concious of the timing of cuts, too, will help to save wildlife and money, without sacrificing road safety or public access.

Keep an eye out on the rural verges across West Berkshire, checking the maps above to find those areas that have the most interesting and varied native plants - you're guarateed to see some great butterflies, bees, grasshoppers and more making these verges their home or highway.

The West Berkshire Wild Verges Project may be no more, but there are plans in the works for another district-wide collaboration between West Berkshire Council and BBOWT. Keep an eye out for updates on the  BBOWT  and  West Berkshire Council  websites, as well as for general advice on how to better look after nature in your local area.