As We Move Into The Coldest And Gloomiest Month Of The Year, It Is Time To Think Ahead To Better Weather, And One Way To Do That Is To Celebrate The Ongoing Success Of The Sid Vale Association’s Knapp Nature Reserve.
Surveys over the last twelve years have recorded 223 different flowering plants across the site. This diversity, along with the many fungi and lichens which we are beginning to record, supports a rich variety of creatures from tiny springtails to birds and mammals, including the bats that fly over at night while the dormice are clambering through the blackthorn thickets.
An island of farmland that was still being grazed within living memory, the 11 acre (4 ½ hectare) site is so rich in diversity because it has six very different habitats, and there is an active group of volunteers working to a management plan set up to make the site a haven for nature.
Peasland Knapp, a steep south facing 3 acre pasture, was acquired by the SVA in 2010. Lightly grazed by sheep from time to time, one of the most impressive features are the huge hills of the yellow meadow ants that conspire to trip you up.
If you look carefully at these you will see the four petalled trailing tormentil favours the top but its close cousin the five petalled creeping cinquefoil grows lower down. The ant activity has made the top drier and more acidic than the surrounding ground.
Peasland Knapp is a particular favourite for grasshoppers and crickets, and marbled white and common blue butterflies. There is also a good population of the spectacular oil beetle. Wrens nest in the cover of the brambles that encroach from the edge of the pasture.
Next to Peasland Knapp is an orchard planted with a mix of traditional varieties. These trees are now plastered with a rich variety of lichens. Many are very difficult to identify but we are working on the list.
There is an area of young mixed woodland. Some people are alarmed to see trees being felled, but this is the proper way to manage woodland and will promote a healthier habitat in time. A colony of the broad-leaved helleborine orchid has established itself on the edge of the woodland.
There are two meadows making up the northern half of the site. These are managed by cutting and clearing the hay in late summer. This regime has allowed a profusion of wild flowers to spread, but one meadow slopes to the east while the other slopes to the west and their population lists are different. The east meadow has a thriving population of southern marsh orchids and cowslips which have expanded from a few plants introduced 15 years ago.
There is an old dew pond behind a fence. This had become totally silted up but was dredged in 2020. Now, you can stand on a summer afternoon watching bright blue male broad-bodied chaser dragonflies hunting around it edge.
Most of the site is open to the public for walking and understanding more about wildlife and the environment. Some areas are fenced off to allow the wild inhabitants undisturbed peace.
A species list can be found on our website sidvalleybiodiversity.org. Our wildlife records for the whole valley are available if you log onto iNaturalist and zoom in on the map. If you would like to volunteer and help manage the Knapp, then please contact the Sid Vale Association at estates@sidvaleassociation.org.uk.
Ed Dolphin
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