Castlereagh Plateau Biodiversity Profile

In the following account of this LCA it should be noted that for consistency, the biodiversity section follows the standard order for all LCAs even though some of the communities discussed later may have more importance for biodiversity than those discussed earlier.

Key Characteristics

• undulating terrain, mostly over 100m in altitude, with drumlins and large, open inter-drumlin areas
• improved pasture dominates the land use
• woodlands are scarce, but fields are bounded by hedgerows
• gorse (whin) scrub occurs as small pockets on rocky outcrops
• damp grasslands, with only a few wetland patches, can occupy inter-drumlin areas

Woodlands

Woodlands are scarce in this LCA and generally confined to the sides of steep valleys along the northern edge of the LCA and to colonized former wetlands.

Grassland and Arable

Grassland dominates the LCA with grassland occupying over 80% of the land. The majority of this is in highly productive, improved pastures in extensive, continuous areas. These sown leys, used for dairy cattle and silage, offer little biodiversity of either flora or fauna; this can be found largely in the hedgerows around these fields. However, there is a broad belt extending from Ballymacbrennan and Mossgrove in the southwest to Lessans and Moneyreagh in the northeast, in which there is a mix of highly productive pastures and poor quality pastures. The latter are associated with damp inter-drumlin areas where breeding waders such as lapwing and snipe have been recorded and with thin soils of rocky outcrops. They tend to have greater biodiversity, for example associated with rushes in the damp areas and with gorse on the more rocky outcrops. More continuous areas of poor quality pastures occur in the south of the LCA around Lisbane Lough, Squires Rock and Tonaghmore.

Arable land (which includes bare soil fields some possibly for grass reseeding) is scattered through the LCA, but there are more extensive areas to the east of Carryduff and near Moneyreagh This habitat is important for decreasing farmland birds such as the yellowhammer and tree sparrow.

Lowland Raised Bog

There are no examples of lowland raised bog remaining in the LCA; all have been cut-over and have been colonized by trees, drained for agriculture or used as refuse tips.

Wetlands

A few scattered wetlands remain in the LCA, including small loughs, fens and carr woodlands (wet woodlands). These habitats are often mixed at one site, which makes them some of the most important in the LCA in relation to biodiversity. Most of the fens and carr woodlands occupy cut-over bogs, as around the southern end of Monlough or at Leveroge. However, because of their small size these wetlands are vulnerable to drainage for agriculture and, being near to built-up areas and quarries, use as landfill sites.

Key Issues

General actions for UK and NI Priority Habitats and Priority Species are detailed in the Habitat Action Plans and Species Action Plans.

WOODLANDS

Issue: extremely limited woodland cover, restricted to steep valley sides and former wetlands

Actions:

• enhance the biodiversity value of scarce woodlands by discouraging any further felling or pollarding; by retention of fallen and veteran trees (particularly for bryophytes, ferns, fungi and fauna); ensure that hazel scrub is not cleared
• encourage control of grazing in broadleaved woodlands to foster herb layer and regeneration and if necessary, encourage replanting of canopy species
• enhance biodiversity through measures to improve and extend woodland cover such as The Woodland Grant Scheme or The Farm Woodland Premium Scheme; management plans for remnant woodland should be directed toward their survival, through natural regrowth or planting of native broadleaf species

GRASSLAND AND ARABLE

Issue: improved pastures and arable land of low biodiversity value, due to intensive farming practices

Actions:

• encourage (through participation in Environmental Schemes) adoption/continuance of less intensive management of pastures to allow reversion to/continuance of more species-rich grassland and protect unsown areas of grassland
• maintain and enhance damp inter-drumlin areas by where, possible, restricting field or arterial drainage
• maintain and improve field boundaries, especially hedgerows where they occur through adoption of correct cutting cycles; hedge laying and replanting where necessary; leave saplings uncut to develop into hedgerow trees; avoidance of spraying with fertilisers, slurry, herbicides; provision of wildlife strips and conservation headlands around fields; and limitation of field amalgamation
• leave stubble over winter, rather than autumn ploughing to increase food resources for farmland birds; spring-sown cereals are beneficial to farmland birds
• ensure that further clearance of boulders does not occur on pastoral or arable land

HEATHS AND BOGS

Issue: all previous lowland raised bogs in this LCA have been lost to extraction, drainage or through use as refuse tips

Actions:

• consider restoration of lowland raised bogs habitats through appropriate water level management, removal of individual colonising trees and phasing out peat cutting - applies particularly to formerly intact bogs affected by recent mechanical cutting
• monitor use of cut-over lowland raised bogs to ensure that important micro-habitats are not lost, that the large tracts of land required by predator birds are not broken up by planting and other uses, and that the needs of over-wintering and breeding wetland birds are met

WETLANDS AND LAKES

Issue: this LCA retains a few scattered wetlands, including the NI Priority Habitats wet woodlands and fens

Actions:

• ensure conservation of wet woodlands by allowing succession to take place and installing fencing to prevent trampling; ensure that loss does not occur through drainage, reclamation, landfill or dumping/tipping
• prevent further loss of fens through drainage, reclamation, land-fill, new woodland planting and encroachment by scrub woodland; prevent dumping and fly-tipping and encourage removal of rubbish; care should be taken to divert the flow of nutrient rich water from agricultural land away from fens, so that sites do not become damaged by a change in species composition
• carefully assess any proposals for arterial and field drainage near to fens so that the water table is not lowered to the extent that fens are affected
• promote and encourage adoption of Countryside Management guidelines so that wetlands are not polluted by releases from silage effluent, herbicides, pesticides, fertilisers or sheep dip; ensure that further eutrophication does not occur as a result of nutrient-rich surface waters from surrounding farmland
• monitor streams in relation to expansion of rural/urban housing and associated septic tanks/sewage treatment plants

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