Compartment 12 is the southwestern one of four parcels (commonly called "lozenges") bordered by the former runway and taxiways. The lozenges form four similarly sized, long linear sections, all of which are very rich in flora, containing national and Berkshire rarities.
The compartment dips gently from north to south and, like compartment 11, has distinct bands of vegetation conforming to the typography, also containing extensive areas of gorse, heath and acid and neutral grassland. The total area of this compartment is 19.6 ha.
Neutral grassland occurs as narrow strips predominantly bordering the south side of the compartment and reveals green-winged orchid and autumn ladies tresses, both uncommon in Berkshire, as well as early purple orchid.
The dry heathland is a complex mixture of heather, dwarf gorse and gorse, the latter of which forms dense areas where Dartford warbler reside most of the year. Lichen heath is rare in this compartment. In isolated areas along the middle of the compartment, wet flushes reveal areas where heath grass, oval sedge, soft rush and hard rush can be found. One flush area has common rush, lesser spearwort and compact rush. This area is also frequently used by roosting jack snipe.
The band of acid grassland on the southern border contains 3 linear zones of heather in patches, likely corresponding to minor soil changes. There are patches of dense gorse scrub and a few small flushes containing hard rush, heath grass and carnation sedge, and parts are rich in fungi.
Options exist for this compartment.
The overall objectives are to reduce the extent of gorse in favour of heathland and acid grassland, and to manage both heathland and gorse areas to diversify structure. There is also an objective to encourage patches of kidney vetch adjacent to the bund on the business park, for the benefit of small blue butterflies.
| Objective | Area | Method | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12.1) Reduce the extent of Gorse by up to 10% of current extent in favour of heath and grassland by 201. | Whole compartment. | Suitable areas of gorse can be cut, the arisings removed and the ground scraped to remove litter. Allow space to re-generate naturally.
Species-poor areas can have very small scrapes made within them to create bare gravel areas. |
Area to be determined in the heath and gorse cutting plan to be produced in the first year of this plan. |
12.2) Maintain existing heathland and acid grassland mosaic.HLS objectives
|
Whole compartment. | Coppice degenerate gorse and dominant scrub. Treat birch stumps to prevent re-growth. Preserve heather and acid grassland in clearings on the south side and eastern end adjacent to bund alongside business park. Up to 0.25ha per year maximum. | Gorse management for Dartford Warbler.
Retain scrub screen around wet flushes and along compartment edges. Monitor rare species. |
12.3) Maintain species, structure and extent of grassland.
HLS objectives
|
Whole compartment. | Grazing is the primary tool. Monitoring of the grassland sward and control of grazing is a vital part of this management to maintain short sward and help reduce soil fertility. Scrape small sections each year to create bare ground, especially in species-poor areas. Mow small areas if required at end of growing season. Control ragwort. |
Grazing is the primary management tool and will be reviewed as part of the grazing review planned in the first year of this plan. |
| 12.4) Increase extent of kidney vetch. | Adjacent to path by bund on New Greenham Park. | Collect kidney vetch seed in late summer then spread on newly scraped areas over the winter. Focus on areas of existing gorse. |