Heath provides inspirational start to new year

11:57am Monday 3rd September 2007

THE start of September is, I suppose, like the start of a new year within the Wyre Forest District Council Ranger Service.

You may think this is strange but to me it makes perfect sense. At the end of March the birds are well into nesting and it is generally felt that, unless there is emergency tree work and large scale clearance work, birds and the rest of the nature reserve's wildlife can get on with their cycles of life.

However, spring is not an easy time as there are many millions of invasive weeds that grow to compete with our native flora and the rangers expend much physical effort trying to, at least limit, the effect of these plants.

Come summer the focus of the service changes to try provide education to communities surrounding the nature reserves and in particular to the young. This year, during the school summer holidays the rangers ran more than 30 events ranging from a few hours to 12 hours in duration with the activities based on themes varying from survival skills to bat nights.

The end of these holidays also coincides with the start of the felling season, where once again it is generally felt that tree work and other large scale conservation tasks are ecologically appropriate. Hence with the last of the events it is time, just like the start of more traditional new years, to begin to propose resolutions or projects for the coming new year.

Also, the new year needs to be celebrated and fortunately for us in the Ranger Service this is usually done with some style.

One of the rarest of habitats trusted to the staff of the Ranger Service to look after is that of the lowland heaths that surround Kidderminster.

This habitat, when it comes to describing the ecological value, was described by the then English Nature "as the European equivalent of tropical rainforest".

It is also one of the hardest habitats to look after and over many years huge amounts of effort has to go in just to prevent this habitat and all of the nationally scarce wildlife it supports from becoming extinct in the district.

It is now, at the turn of what I am now calling the rangers' new year, that this habitat that puts on its show, as heather, probably the most typical heathland species, comes fully into bloom, transforming these hard fought for heaths into a rage of purple blossom.

It is such a blast to spend just a few hours wandering through these beautiful fields of heather, the smell of the sweetly honey scented blossom is really uplifting, as is the mellow soundtrack produced by the millions of bees that bumble their way from flower to flower.

It is also a great opportunity to take in the results of the previous years' work.

Unfortunately this is not a trip that is just full of hearty mutual pats on the back because the management of the lowland heath is still a very experimental process and a variety of different techniques are employed to try to find the formula that produces the best results.

Sometimes things work really well, sometimes they need tweaking to try to get the desired results.

Either way, it is always a moment of great motivation. If only all new year's parties were so inspirational!

EDITOR'S CHOICE