All in a day's work

I spent Friday helping move Natural England owned ponies onto their 'new patch'. They had been in their previous location for a number of weeks and had done their job wonderfully. They have grazed back all the molinia/purple moor grass (Molinia caerullea) tussocks, the European gorse (Ulex europaeus) and willow sprouts, among other plants.

Their job is to munch their way through the vegetation as they see fit. They tend to take the luscious first, moving on to the edible, but less favoured patches later. They keep the vegetation at a non-uniform, low level, removing the need for time-consuming clearance work. By creating a patchwork of density and structure grazing helps encourage other plant species that may be out-competed by the larger scrub species which dominate the heath. The ponies are supposedly selective enough to leave the plants that are of high value to another of the moors important residents: the scabious plants. 


Devil's Bit Scabious (Succisa pratensis) is a food plant of the Marsh Fritillary butterfly (Nymphalidae euphrdryas) which has undergone a great range contraction in the past few decades (up to 66% of English populations lost from 1990 to 2000 (http://www.arkive.org/marsh-fritillary/euphydryas-aurinia/#text=All)). The butterfly favours open heathy grasslands such as that on parts of Goss Moor. 

The ponies have now been moved onto a patch of heathland where they have more gorse; both European and Western, as well as molinia and heather to munch their way through in the coming weeks. I have to say though, they look very lovely where they are at the moment. Visible from the multi-use trail, they set the scene from some historical romance novel perfectly.

The real delight though, will be returning to the patch they have just left in a few weeks time, to see what will pop up from the ground now it has been grazed. Only time will tell!

Thanks,

Becky