Article
Hands out for the moors
- Reading time 1 min
- Read 1604 times
Keeping heathland open is a matter of rolling up your sleeves. Mowing, grazing with cattle, removing the top layer of soil and unwanted vegetation is how Natuurmonumenten keeps the heath open.
Increasing heather also creates connections with other heathlands. Animal species belonging to heathland such as the viviparous lizard and the heath blue will thus have more habitat.
Removal of upper soil layer
Heather likes 'poor' soil. This is why the top nutrient-rich layer is sometimes removed, known as plowing. At first it is a strange sight but soon seeds germinate from the upper layers and new heather emerges. Often a wonderful place for sand bees and lizards to warm up in spring on the warm sand in the sun.
Grazing, mowing and pulling pine cones
If nothing is done the heathland overgrows with pines and birches. Grazers keep the area open. In the Buurserzand there is therefore a herd of Hereford cattle. Sometimes humans lend a hand. A contractor or a volunteer team clears the heath of unwanted vegetation. The little trees are left behind. Insects find a place there, and mosses and fungi need dead wood.
Keeping heathland open is a matter of rolling up your sleeves.
