Black Brook

Black Brook

Located in the spectacular upland, wild landscape of the Staffordshire Moorlands, Black Brook is our largest nature reserve.

Highlights

• Listen out for the sound of migratory curlews returning to the moorlands in early March and heralding the start of spring.

• The Staffordshire moorlands are a blaze of purple in late summer as theather come into flower.

• Walk to the hill at Gib Torr rocks and take in the wonderful views across this special moorland landscape.

Bigger is better

At over 300 acres Black Brook is the Trust’s largest nature reserve. But it wasn’t always that way. In 1982 the Trust acquired 51 acres of upland moorland at Baldstone. Over ten years later an additional 250 acres was acquired with the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund. More recently the Trust has acquired a further 20 acres with the help of local members. The latest addition means that the Trust’s landholding now borders directly on to the Peak District National Park Authorities Roaches Estate – making this area one of the largest continuous blocks of land managed for wildlife and people in the County.

More moor?

The reserve, excluding the conifer plantation, lies almost entirely within the Leek Moors Site of Special Scientific Interest. The whole SSSI covers an area of 9000 acres. Most of the reserve is also notified within a Special Conservation Area (SAC) and Special Protection Area (SPA). These designations highlight the European importance of the area for moorland vegetation and associated birds.

Large tracts of land like this are essential for wildlife if we are to sustain viable populations of key moorland species and allow species space to move and adapt in the face of current pressures including loss of habitat, climate change and greater land use pressures. Many of our upland birds require large open spaces and this part of the Leek Moors is becoming a hot-spot for species like snipe, which are nationally declining, and lapwing.

Anyone who loves this area will talk with passion about the sights and sounds of the moors. From the distinctive call of the curlews in late spring to the sight of a hobby hunting for small mammals, or the spectre of a short-eared owl as it fly’s low across the open mooorland where it nests.

Stop and look at the vegetation and you’ll see it’s not all just heather. Amongst the heather are patches of bilberry, crowberry and cowberry. You’ll have to hunt carefully for Cranberry though. Located at the Pennine fringe, the transition from moorland to rush pasture and in-bye grassland is one of the reasons this area is so unique. These plants in turn support specialist moorland species including the rare moorland bumblebee, green hairstreak butterfly and notable moths like glaucous shears and light knotgrass.

Commercial crop to wildlife haven

Of the 300 acres of land owned by the Trust almost one third was planted with commercial conifer plantation in the mid-1970’s. As the conifers have grown the wildlife which uses it has changed. The black grouse which once held territory in the area disappeared once the conifers grew too tall. The globeflower, at its southern most location here, only manages to hang on in a small clearing within the plantation. The plantation is however now home to a range of small woodland birds. Many of these are relatively common and are now largely restricted to nesting at the edges of the plantation blocks – the middle of the blocks are too dense even for most of these species. The Trust is currently part of the way through a plan to return this plantation to a mix of more beneficial wildlife habitats. The restoration of open moorland will ensure plants like bog asphodel, marsh violets and cranberry can survive. The moorland invertebrates will also be able to spread into these restored areas. The sphagnum pools will be used by dragonflies and damselflies.  The newly planted woodland will support small woodland birds and thickets of birch and hawthorn will provide cover and food for the few less common species currently found in the plantation.

Measures of success

Since the Trust expanded the reserve in 1995 we have carried out annual bird surveys. We have seen lapwing and, more recently, snipe return to the rushy fields at Baldstone. We have worked with the Peak Park over the winter to mow areas of overgrown heather. These new areas will provide better habitat for curlew.

We have planted thousands of new broadleaf trees which are doing well, despite initial setbacks, and you can now stand at the top of the reserve and clearly see the new woodland developing. Visit the site in June and you’ll be amazed at the swathes of cotton-grass – not just in the long-established open moorland but also now within the areas which have most recently been restored from conifer plantation. Within a few years after felling the moorland plants have begun to reclaim the land which was previously covered by dense dark conifers and smothered in pine needles.

Change is never easy

Restoration of the plantation hasn’t been without its issues. Some local people would like to see the conifers retained as shelter, to support woodland birds and provide a home for red deer. The issues are complex – originally planted for tax benefits over forty years ago the conifers won’t live forever. They are not, nor will they ever be, a financially viable, sustainable forest. A significant number of trees are carrying a fungal disease. Planted as a commercial crop they would have been harvested and replanted in a continuous cycle of deforestation and restocking. The Trust wants to break this cycle and restore the land to habitats which are more in keeping with the character of the local area and can be maintained into the future. Our current proposals would mean approximately half the remaining conifer woodland would revert to open habitats and half would be replanted as broadleaf woodland.

The Trust is working with local people, statutory organisations and forestry experts to try and find a more satisfactory solution to the future landscape of the area – but it’s unlikely everyone will agree and compromises will have to be made by all parties!

As part of our future plans we are currently producing an Environmental Impact Assessment. Once this document is finalised it will be presented to the Forestry Commission as a basis for our future plans for the restoration of the site. A copy of the EIA will be available on the website later this year.