Heather management

Family walking on heather moor near Bethesda, Wales

Heather is adapted to low nutrient environments, individual plants are slow growing and live for 30-60 years. It is the dominant plant of lowland and upland heaths. If the heather is not managed, the heather becomes straggly and senescent.

Regular management is the key to maintaining low nutrients, preventing succession and the suitability of heathland for many of its dependent species, nightjar, woodlark, Dartford warbler and black grouse. Management should aim to rejuvenate the heather before it reaches senescence, or early on grouse moors where proportions of pioneer heather need to be higher.

Management

Three main heather management practices can be used to maintain ericaceous cover on heathland areas:

Burning
Grazing
Mowing

Ideal long-term sustainable management of a heathland site would involve a combination of burning and grazing. Grazing being used as the main management tool (with its associated benefits to biodiversity) but with burning every 20-40 years to remove litter accumulations and ensure long-term sustainability.

Further reading

Gimingham, C H (1992) The Lowland Heath Management Handbook. English Nature, Peterborough.

Woodrow, W, Symes, N, and Auld, M, (1996) The Dorset Heathland Project 1989-1995 - a management case study. RSPB Sandy.

Lane, A (1992) Practical Conservation. Grasslands, Heaths and Moors. Hodder and Stoughton, London.

In more depth

Dorset Heathland Project