RHONDDA CYNON TAF ACTION FOR NATURE PLAN
Wet woodlands are an important feature of riversides, wet valley bottoms and flushed hillside. They often occur in complex mosaics with drier, mixed woodlands, or as flushes within upland oak woods. The characteristic species of wet carr are alder, and grey and goat willow with downy birch particularly a feature of flushed valley sides. Guelder rose and alder buckthorn are often characteristic species of wet woodlands.
The ground flora compositions reflect the ground conditions. Swamp floras with a range of sedges species (including pond, pendulous, tussock and remote), marsh marigolds, iris, hemlock water-dropwort, wood club-rush, wavy bittercress, cuckoo flowers, reedmace, tufted hair-grass and reed sweet canary grass can all occur on the wettest, valley bottom sites, and where the ground is particularly sodden and peaty, sphagnum bog mosses and tussocks of polytrichum moss can be frequent. Alder, downy birch and willow carr will readily invade marshy grasslands, and remnant rhos pastures, where amongst thickets of wet scrub, huge tussocks of purple moor-grass and long, pale leaved devil’s-bit scabious hint at the lost habitat.
On flushed valley sides, alder and downy birch woodland mark the wetter ground, often with marsh violets as a companion species. Damp ground conditions are ideal for ferns and amongst the usual suspects, royal fern can occur, it is always scarce, but always worth looking for.
Associated Species
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Alder
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Grey willow
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Goat willow
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Downy birch
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Guelder rose
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Alder buckthorn
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Pendulous sedge
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Marsh marigold
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Iris
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Hemlock water-dropwort
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Wood club-rush
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Wavy bittercress
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Marsh violets
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Himalayan balsam
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Willow warbler
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Willow tit
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Marsh Tit
Invaders of the Wet Woodland
Behind the comprehensive school in Treorchy is a magical piece of wet woodland where biodiversity was king.
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Himalayan Balsam has been moving in over the last five years and for the last two years I have been doing some balsam bashing to get on top of the problem.
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Balsam bashing is quite a physical activity if there is a lot of balsam around so your better to have a few friends tackling an area in order to make the impact your aiming for. Splitting in to teams where someone is cracking the first nodes from the pulled pieces and sorting it all out into a pile so it cannot re-root and grow back!
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I visited my area three times over a season as there can be waves of balsam and not just the ones you see on the first attempt.
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Talking to surrounding land owners is also key to make sure you have everyone on side before you begin as this can be a stumbling block as people see them for the bees and not the long-term impact. The good news is they are easy to pull out and making a difference even by myself was possible.
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Next year I aim on getting the community involved in my area as it is still out pacing my efforts by myself. I know if I do not tackle this area it will be all over Cwmparc mountain and forestry in no time at all with each plant generating 70-80 seeds and sending them 7-8m in all directions.
I also aim to get Treorchy Comp involved as the Balsam is taking over their land and undermining my efforts as I cannot get to those areas which are directly opposite my wet forest.
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Together we can make a difference.
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Gareth Williams, Rhondda Litter Pickers and Environment
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Pant Marsh
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Parc Dowlais
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Brynna Woods
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Glyncornel LNR
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Dare Valley CP
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Llanilid