Wild Ennerdale Partnership Monitoring

Description: 
The Wild Ennerdale Partnership undertakes a range of monitoring activities in order to • informing the partners about levels of unacceptable change (e.g. increasing vehicles dominance of spruce regeneration) • sharing the results of allowing natural process to develop the valley, providing a base line for future generations to see the effects of change on the valley. • enabling the effectiveness of the Stewardship plan actions to be assessed. Monitoring activities include drystone wall surveys to understand the biological value of walls to inform rebuilding activities; monitoring vegetation change through fixed point photos, aerial photography, a national vegetation classification survey of the whole valley and more detailed vegetation monitoring plots; ornithological survey to understand the distribution of bird species through the valley to understand how rewilding affects bird species; measure woodland change through a series of 100 permanent sample plots setup across the valley during Autumn 2006.
Originator: 
Wild Ennerdale Partnership
Is this an existing or new approach to measuring landscape change?: 
Existing
Aspect of landscape: 
Biodiversity
Culture
Enclosure
Land use
Spatial coverage: 
Whole landsscape
Landscape Character Type: 
A. Estuary and Marsh
B. Coastal Margins
C. Coastal Limestone
D. Lowland
E. Coastal Sandstone
F. Rugged/Craggy Volcanic High Fell
G. Rugged/Angular Slate High Fell
H. Upland Valley
I. Upland Limestone Farmland
J. High Fell Fringe
K. Low Fell
L. Low Fell Fringe
M. Low Valley
Geographical unit: 
Valley
Frequency of measure: 
Indicator: 
biological value of walls, the distribution of bird species, woodland change through a series of 100 permanent sample plots setup across the valley during Autumn 2006.
Web link: 
http://www.wildennerdale.co.uk/managing/monitoring/
Barriers: 
This approach is relatively intensive in terms of costs and staff time, however, the results are comprehensive and help to monitor a radical approach to changing land management within one valley.
Resource requirements: 
Staff time
Establishment cost: 
Medium (additional staff time and limited cash up to £15k)
Ongoing operational cost: 
Inensive
Data source: 
Each plot was 12.6m in radius (0.02ha) and located using GPS with the centre marked by a metal peg driven into and flush with the ground. Each plot was then photographed and the number of trees, saplings and seedlings recorded by species along with evidence of browsing and vegetation type. The aim of this work is to provide a baseline for comparing the development of the forest into the future and follows a similar methodology to that proposed by the Forestry Commission for monitoring Continuous Cover Transformation.
Submitted by: 
Laura Partington

Add new comment