Scousburgh Hill

[stilldellin]

^^^ wire mesh fence has been removed and replaced with standard post and wire fence. Garage doors have been removed and sealed.

Not many calls heard there yesterday unless that of the curlew.

http://i1207.photobucket.com/albums/bb479/beenister/BTIgatetele.jpg

[Ghostrider]

^^^ wire mesh fence has been removed.....

 

Would eventually gathered up the bits from where they blew to, not be a more accurate account. Last I saw it there were some chunks of it missing and others hanging out over the road waving in the wind.

[Ghostrider]

Not many calls heard there yesterday unless that of the curlew.

http://i1207.photobucket.com/albums/bb479/beenister/BTIgatetele.jpg

 

ET is going to have to be very inventive if he tries to use dis een

[stilldellin]

^^^ wire mesh fence has been removed.....

 

Would eventually gathered up the bits from where they blew to, not be a more accurate account. Last I saw it there were some chunks of it missing and others hanging out over the road waving in the wind.

Okay GR I will do a re-run on that, " what was left of the wire mesh fence has been removed "..

and yep, dunno aboot ET but looked as if da scories had even given up on it..

[stilldellin]

Totally unrelated, but I thought when I was up there yesterday I would have a look at the " experimental " reseeded plantation on the eastern slopes. It does not seem to be doing that great :-

http://i1207.photobucket.com/albums/bb479/beenister/scousplant1.jpg

and this was about the best I could find, outside the plantation I hasten to add.

http://i1207.photobucket.com/albums/bb479/beenister/scousplant2.jpg

Does anyone have any gen on the plantation, it does seem to have been a complete failure ?

[Ghostrider]

^^ Not in "wir hill" so don't know the "oots an inns". Da Lingert man wid laekly ken.

 

There was a bit tried sometime in the 90's in wir hill, on a similar bare piece nort bye the BT station. From what I heard it initially established maybe no so bad, but it was the westerly winters it cudna contend wi.

 

Re-establishing the original hard hill girse I doot is a non-starter, but I would think doing it the same as a "reseed" on better grund, should be possible up to a point, albeit as a long term, awkward and thankless task.

 

You'd need to go in wi lime twartree year ahead of the seed, otherwise the moor is just ower soor for better girse to spring and survive. Any that does come up will be as yallo is da gaw, and will frizzle aff in da first grain o' saut ashore. Limed up aforehaund, wi luck, enough wid spring and gripp for clumps ta see trow da winter, den manure and wirkin seed in ta da bare patches, alang wi very light grazing to make it fill in redder is run ta stickles fur several year.

 

Goadless kerry on tho, for next to nothing back, and DAFS dusna look weel upoa folk wantin ta establish "non-native" vegetation on unimproved grund noo idder, so dir nae incentive ta budder.

[Ghostrider]

http://i1207.photobucket.com/albums/bb479/beenister/scousplant2.jpg

 

Dir bost be hardly a yowe idda aest hill da yeer, ur dis no been shawin idder. Mebbe if dey keep aw sheep oot, dey'll hae a forest o' ferns aw ower Hallilee a time, if dir enyoch rabbit hols fur every een ta gyt a fit hadd.

[michael_balmain]

The plots up on Scousburgh Hill were done by the Amenity Trust on behalf of the RSPB (I believe).

The aim was to do a variety of heather re seeding techniques, some mixed with grass, some seed, others with cuttings pinned down etc.

The major problem up there is continued erosion of the peat. It dries out, gets blown away, dries out, blows away and so th cycle continues. Mixed with erosion in heavy rainfall events the odds are stacked against and regeneration.

On top of that there is a very low pH. It rots the chicken wire in a year.

[Ghostrider]

^^ Why the decison to go with heather do you know? I find it quite surprising as that hill does not naturally grow heather well. Even at much lower levels on that hill, where heather has established, it is of extremely poor quality, even where lightly grazed.

 

Check stilldellin's photo above of the BT site, the vast majority of the forground has never been disturbed, there never was enough moor there to cut, so it was passed bye as the cutting area moved further north. What you see is what grows, and has always grown in that hill as far back as memory goes.

[stilldellin]

^^^ Cheers for all the feedback, yep pretty harsh environment up the " mountain " as it was known to us when cutting peat up there late fifties, and sixties due to Virdifield running at maximum capacity.

As You say GR I would have thought the indroduction of lime would have been a fairly basic requirement to fire things off.

So michael, do you know if the experiment is at an end and was there anything at all that showed promise ?