# Heather, it didn't like the drought



## dw1305 (22 Sep 2018)

Hi all,
I was on a Field Course last week in Dorset, and a lot of heather on the sand dunes at Studland etc had died in the drought.

You couldn't collect any dead heather from Studland, because it is a NNR, but there should be other heaths, moors and commons where there is dead heather wood you could collect.

cheers Darrel


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## Aquahorti (23 Sep 2018)

dw1305 said:


> Hi all,
> I was on a Field Course last week in Dorset, and a lot of heather on the sand dunes at Studland etc had died in the drought.
> 
> You couldn't collect any dead heather from Studland, because it is a NNR, but there should be other heaths, moors and commons where there is dead heather wood you could collect.
> ...



If you contact the body that is in charge of the NNR and talk to them about collecting heather you should be able to get more heather that you can possibly need in a lifetime of aquascaping. The funny thing about heather is that it needs grazing, a good fire or other types of abuse in order to stay healthy https://www.ashdownforest.org/management/heathland.php. I don't know how that is done in other countries, but here in Denmark they cut it back every few years, some times just burn large parts of it in order to maintain it. That is your chance, talk to them so that you get to collect from the areas before they do the maintenance in the areas.

I have a small patch 400 m from my home that is to small for anyone to be interested in maintaining it, so I go there every autumn with my son and cut the tallest and most bush like parts back as well as remove trees that have sprouted as our own little conservation project. The patch is only a few hundred square meters and it takes us a couple of hours. We could without any problems take a few sacks of heather cuttings away from that patch every year, but we leave it for the deer in the area. I am sure many in here have areas like that not to far away from where they live, and if not you probably know someone who could help you out with a bag or two of heather.

Addendum:

Heather can have some fungi on it that can cause problems for animals, I read an article about the problem a few years ago, but never thought to save it for future reference but it is mentioned in a Wiki article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calluna) take that for what you want.


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## dw1305 (23 Sep 2018)

Hi all,





Aquahorti said:


> If you contact the body that is in charge of the NNR and talk to them about collecting heather you should be able to get more heather that you can possibly need in a lifetime of aquascaping.


It is really just an administrative thing. 

I should have written it in full, but the NNRs are "National Nature Reserves", and they are owned by the <"UK government">.

Because all NNRs are also SSSIs ("Sites of Special Scientific Interest") you need written permission from Natural England (in England, CCW in Wales etc.) before you can remove anything from them.





Aquahorti said:


> so I go there every autumn with my son and cut the tallest and most bush like parts back as well as remove trees that have sprouted as our own little conservation project. The patch is only a few hundred square meters and it takes us a couple of hours. We could without any problems take a few sacks of heather cuttings away from that patch every year, but we leave it for the deer in the area.


Good, as you say if the heaths aren't grazed, burnt, or cut, they will all end up as woods. We have a real problem with exotic Pine and Rhododendron invasion, as well as natural succession from Birch and Willow.

Other problems are aerial nitrogen deposition and dog walking, it seems bizarre but because the UK is so heavily populated people dogs cr*pping, and more importantly, urinating are a major nutrient input to commons.

The Dorset Heaths have Smooth Snakes and Sand Lizards, which means that burning isn't a management option, so you are looking at Pony or Beef cattle grazing and cutting.

cheers Darrel


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## Aquahorti (23 Sep 2018)

dw1305 said:


> The Dorset Heaths have Smooth Snakes and Sand Lizards, which means that burning isn't a management option, so you are looking at Pony or Beef cattle grazing and cutting.
> 
> cheers Darrel



I Denmark they only burn smaller patches, that way the animals can get away to the unaffected areas. With regards to grazing, sheep are the most frequently used animals for this, but if that is due to historical reasons or based on other factors I don't know.

In my youth I remember them making bales of heather, but I never found out why they did that, it could be for use in eel passages in streams and creeks in other parts of the country, as I remember those being made with heather back then.


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## dw1305 (23 Sep 2018)

Hi all,





Aquahorti said:


> With regards to grazing, sheep are the most frequently used animals for this, but if that is due to historical reasons or based on other factors I don't know.


Sheep grazing is traditional here too, particularly in the North and West of the UK, but it is a bit of an emotive issue for ecological, agricultural and historical reasons.

Sheep grazing tend not to use it much for "conservation grazing" because it converts heaths to acid grasslands with high density grazing, and extensive sheep grazing means you lose all the flowers (sheep are very selective grazers).

There are huge <"areas of central Wales"> etc. which have been entirely depleted of any woody shrubs by ~1500 years of sheep grazing, and are now covered in a grazing resistant, low productivity, community dominated by Bracken (_Pteridium aquilinum_) Mat-grass (_Nardus stricta_) and Heath Rush (_Juncus squarrosus_). The only trees are Sitka Spruce (_Picea sitchensis_) plantations (this the "Welsh Desert").






Until recently the EU CAP "less favoured area" <"grant was based on head-age, which meant that the more stock you kept the more money you got">. This led to very large numbers of Welsh Mountain Sheep being kept almost entirely for their subsidy value, they don't need shearing, or tail docking, which reduces costs of keeping even more. (wool doesn't have any commercial value any more, but sheep still needs to be sheared).

There is also an association between sheep grazing and the <"Scottish/Welsh & Irish Land clearances"> in the 19th Century.

cheers Darrel


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## Edvet (23 Sep 2018)

Impressive decor btw.


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## rebel (24 Sep 2018)

Curious to see the twigs that can be used for scaping. Does anyone have any links...

It's difficult to see what sort of twigs they are.


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## Keith GH (25 Sep 2018)

Darrel
Come to Aust if you want to see our drought.

I could post many far worse.

http://theconversation.com/recent-australian-droughts-may-be-the-worst-in-800-years-94292










Keith


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## rebel (25 Sep 2018)

Oh yer, we are now paying a little extra for milk (we've had insanely cheap milk due to a conspiracy) to try collect for the farmers. They are literally burning in OZ.


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## dw1305 (25 Sep 2018)

Hi all,





rebel said:


> Curious to see the twigs that can be used for scaping. Does anyone have any links...


Have a look at <"Critique my hardscape nano forest using...">.





Keith GH said:


> Come to Aust if you want to see our drought.


Yes, we don't really have droughts, freezes, heat waves or floods, when you compare the UK to other countries, it is just we are so used to it being equitable that as soon as we have a temperature above 30oC it is heatwave, and two weeks without rain is a drought.

cheers Darrel


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## rebel (25 Sep 2018)

Thanks, that heather looks superb! I need to hunt something similar in our neck of the woods...


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## Aquahorti (25 Sep 2018)

@rebel 
That is one of the things I have been doing a lot, looking for hardscape materials that you can get locally, so you don't have to pay 5€ for a kg of rocks and 30+€ per kg of wood.

I would suggest that you contact some of the opal miners in Australia, you should be able to get some amazing rocks from there. I also know that in the northern territories got have some VERY interesting rocks nice textures and stunning red colours. 

With regards to heathers in Australia, I would check the following resource https://www.environment.gov.au/biod...ications/guidelines/alert/pubs/c-vulgaris.pdf.


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## Parablennius (25 Sep 2018)

dw1305 said:


> Yes, we don't really have droughts, freezes, heat waves or floods, when you compare the UK to other countries, it is just we are so used to it being equitable that as soon as we have a temperature above 30oC it is heatwave, and two weeks without rain is a drought.


Yeah, the benefit of living in a temperate clime, no really long term extremes!
Cheers


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## dw1305 (25 Sep 2018)

Hi all, 





rebel said:


> I need to hunt something similar in our neck of the woods...


I'm not sure what you can get in Australia. Both "Heather" (_Calluna vulgaris_,_ Erica_ spp.) and "Manzanita" (_Arctostaphylos_ spp.) are Ericaceae, but you don't have any native species in Australia. 

Tea tree (_Melaleuca_ spp.), Bottlebrush (_Callistemon_ spp.) and Ironbark _Eucalyptus_ spp. might do if they were long dead and had lost their oil content. 





Aquahorti said:


> With regards to heathers in Australia,


I don't know about Australia (just Tasmania?) but I've recently come back from New Zealand, and even on the North Island _Calluna_ is pretty widespread. 

The really obvious alien Heather (partially because it was flowering), on the central plateau of N. Island NZ, was a <"Tree Heath "_Erica lusitanica"_>  and you could have collected literally tonnes of it from the road-sides. 

cheers Darrel


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## foxfish (25 Sep 2018)

Where I live we have had a reverse situation regarding the invasive African Fig, it has gone mad!
The problem for me, is more about the horrendous mess left behind when the fig is removed, it really does destroy the soil under the fig.
Lots of people would rather see the fig than the bare ground left once it is removed but this hot dry summer has seen a huge growth spurt ... it gone mad! 
http://thesarnian.com/essentials/hottentot-fig/


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