Wildlife is threatened by experts
The disused railway cutting at Lightshaw Lane Abram
AN IMPORTANT Wigan wildlife corridor is being threatened by naturalists, residents say.
They are angry that the Lancashire Wildlife Trust wants to clear trees and vegetation of an old 1km-long coal railway track bed in Abram to create a private road.
The Trust says it needs the access to get sufficient heavy plant onto the Lightshaw Meadows special scientific interest (SSSI) site to build a new wetland habitat rich in habitat by improving the floodplain.
The project is being funded by a Heritage Lottery Grant.
The Trust’s Mark Champion said that the land is in an unfavourable condition and requires management to improve its status.
This will include grazing by specialist cattle to discourage grass and encourage reed bed development, along with re-profiling ditches and improving the hydrology of the site with heavy earth-moving equipment within the meadows area to attract waterfowl and rare water voles.
The Trust says the site will eventually act as a wildlife link between Pennington Flash and Wigan Flashes.
But, Mr Champion warned that if the work doesn’t take place the site will continue to decline and birds will fail to colonise the area as the wetland continues to dry out.
They want to re-surface the route of the former coal line which will then be used for maintenance access, to transport livestock and as a recreational footpath.
The scheme will also include a small parking area for Trust staff and a crush for handling the cattle.
But neighbours claim that the naturally regenerated rail route running from Wigan Road down to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal - which last saw narrow gauge trains half a century ago - has become a nature reserve in its own right and should be saved. They are being backed by Makerfield MP Yvonne Fovargue who says that long term youth nuisance problems on the site have disappeared as the former mineral railway has become covered in wild saplings and rampant brambles and bushes.
She said: “The existing vegetation prevents access to the area at the moment and provides the wildlife and natural surroundings with protection.
“But the access road would expose the area and encourage destructive elements.”
Abram ward Coun Eddie Russon is also against the proposal because it would itself cause a significant loss of wildlife habitat.
He said: “The linear nature of the site means it acts as an important wildlife corridor into the nature reserve site because it is completely overgrown these days with mature trees and bushes.”
Neighbour Bernard Lillis, of Balmers Farm, says that he has encouraged and protected wildlife on the railway route for the past quarter of a century..
He said: “My neighbour, who owns the land concerned, has allowed the old line to become overgrown with trees and bushes, which has created the perfect wildlife corridor to harbour many rare species including bats.”
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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Comments
There are 3 comments to this article
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marknicholasfisher
Wednesday, January 26, 2011 at 06:46 PM"The Trust’s Mark Champion said that the land is in an unfavourable condition and requires management to improve its status. This will include grazing by specialist cattle to discourage grass and encourage reed bed development, along with re-profiling ditches and improving the hydrology of the site with heavy earth-moving equipment within the meadows area" The reasons given by Natural England for the unfavourable status of Unit 2 of Abram Flashes SSSI is OVERGRAZING and a lack of control of Himalayan Balsam. It couldn't be because the heritage lottery fund has coughed up over 0.5m quid, that Lancashire Wildlife Trust want to play with all this big machinery? Is Himalayan balsam that hard to shift?
northandsouth
Friday, January 21, 2011 at 02:57 PMThe same trust wrecked a place near Southport with their know it all attitude. The place once had loads of waders and now there is nothing because of their intervention. They should know, Nature Knows Best.
marknicholasfisher
Thursday, January 20, 2011 at 09:08 AMHow interesting to see the stark contrast in outlook between the wildlife trust who make their living out of gardening the landscape, a gross level of intervention that is a pretty unnatural approach to nature conservation, and the local people who value the wild nature that has evolved, the importance it has as a refuge and corridor for native species, and the not the farm livestock of the wildlife trust. Of course, the wildlife trust will say the local people are ill-informed about nature conservation and biodiversity, and would better appreciate what they were doing if they only understood. I think they understand only too well.
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