Foulshaw Moss

Last updated

Work to improve access to Foulshaw Moss Foulshaw Moss.jpg
Work to improve access to Foulshaw Moss

Foulshaw Moss is a raised bog in Cumbria, England. In 1998 it was bought by Cumbria Wildlife Trust, which has worked to reverse damage caused to the bog by drainage and afforestation. It is protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest and as part of the Witherslack Mosses Special Area of Conservation along with two smaller bogs Meathop Moss and Nichols Moss. [1]

Contents

Raised bogs are rare in lowland Britain as many have been drained or used for planting trees, which by their presence extract water from the soil. Despite peat having been cut at the site in the past, this raised bog retains some of its dome of peat that is higher than the surrounding land. It has acid pools in the peat and hummocks of Sphagnum moss. Plants growing here include bog grasses, cottongrass, cranberry, heather, bog rosemary, bog myrtle and round-leaved sundew. There are damselflies and dragonflies, including the scarce emperor dragonfly and white-faced darter, and moths and butterflies, including the large heath. Birds such as osprey, snipe, moorhen and water rail breed here and buzzard, peregrine falcon, merlin and sparrowhawk search for prey. [2]

Reintroductions

With funding from Natural England, the Cumbria Wildlife Trust and the British Dragonfly Society have reintroduced a rare species of dragonfly, the White-faced darter, to the site from 2010. This is the first UK reintroduction of this species. [3]

In 2014 ospreys nested at Foulshaw Moss. [4] [5] They have continued to breed at the site. [6]

At the end of 2014 the Cumbria Wildlife Trust announced a project to develop a reed bed at Foulshaw Moss with funding from the SITA Trust. It was hoped to attract wildlife such as the bittern to the new habitat, which would replicate "lagg fen" which forms naturally round the edges of peat domes. [5]

Access

Boardwalks and bird hides allow visitors to view the ospreys from a distance. [7]

Related Research Articles

Leighton Moss RSPB reserve Nature reserve in Lancashire, England

Leighton Moss RSPB reserve is a nature reserve in Lancashire, England, which has been in the care of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds since 1964. It is situated at Silverdale near Carnforth, on the edge of Morecambe Bay and in the Arnside and Silverdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Askham Bog Protected site and nature reserve in York, England

Askham Bog is small area of peat bog and Site of Special Scientific Interest situated within the Vale of York in North Yorkshire, England. It lies to the south-west of York, north of Copmanthorpe and near Askham Richard and Askham Bryan. It is regarded as one of the most ecologically diverse sites in Northern England.

Cumbria Wildlife Trust is a wildlife trust covering the county of Cumbria, England. It runs more than 40 nature reserves, and aims to broaden the awareness and knowledge of the wildlife in the county.

Fenns, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses National Nature Reserve Nature reserve in England and Wales

Fenn's, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses National Nature Reserve is a national nature reserve (NNR) which straddles the border between England and Wales, near Whixall and Ellesmere in Shropshire, England and Bettisfield in Wrexham County Borough, Wales. It comprises three peat bogs, Bettisfield Moss, Fenn's Moss and Whixall Moss. With Wem Moss and Cadney Moss, they are collectively a Site of Special Scientific Interest called The Fenn's, Whixall, Bettisfield, Wem & Cadney Moss Complex and form Britain's third-largest lowland raised bog, covering 2,388 acres (966 ha). The reserve is part of the Midland Meres and Mosses, an Important Plant Area which was declared a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention in 1997. It is also a European Special Area of Conservation.

Ballynahone Bog is a raised bog, situated in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, about 3 km south of Maghera, on low-lying ground immediately north of the Moyola River about 14 km from its mouth at Lough Neagh. It is one of the largest lowland raised bogs in Northern Ireland.

Colony Bog and Bagshot Heath Site of Special Scientific Interest in Surrey, England

Colony Bog and Bagshot Heath is a 1,130.5-hectare (2,794-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest between Camberley and Woking in Surrey, England. Part of it is a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade I. It is part of the Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area and the Thursley, Ash, Pirbright and Chobham Special Area of Conservation. It includes Brentmoor Heath, a Local Nature Reserve which is managed by the Surrey Wildlife Trust

Cors Caron

Cors Caron is a raised bog in Ceredigion, Wales. Cors is the Welsh word for "bog". Cors Caron covers an area of approximately 349 hectares. Cors Caron represents the most intact surviving example of a raised bog landscape in the United Kingdom. About 44 different species groups inhabit the area including various land and aquatic plants, fish, insects, crustaceans, lichen, fungi, terrestrial mammals and birds.

White-faced darter Species of dragonfly

The white-faced darter or small whiteface is a dragonfly belonging to the genus Leucorrhinia in the family Libellulidae, characterised by red and black markings and a distinctive white patch on the head. It is found in wetlands and peat bogs from northern Europe eastwards to Siberia, and the adults are active from around April till September, which is known as the "flight period". It breeds in acidic bodies of water, laying its eggs in clumps of sphagnum moss that provide a safe habitat for larval development. The larvae are particularly vulnerable to predation by fish, and so are usually found in lakes where fish are not present. L. dubia is listed as a species of least concern (LC) by the IUCN Red List, however, it is potentially threatened by habitat destruction, pollution, and climate change.

Prestwick Carr

Prestwick Carr is a large area of low-lying wetland on the northern boundary of the city of Newcastle upon Tyne in northeastern England between Dinnington and Ponteland. It is known for attracting various birds of wetlands and open country and is an Site of Special Scientific Interest and a nature reserve managed by the Northumberland Wildlife Trust. A large part of the site is owned by the Ministry of Defence.

Meathop and Ulpha Human settlement in England

Meathop and Ulpha is a former civil parish, now in the parish of Witherslack, Meathop and Ulpha, in the South Lakeland district of the English county of Cumbria. Historically in Westmorland, it is located 3.6 miles (5.8 km) north east of Grange-over-Sands, 10.6 miles (17.1 km) south west of Kendal and 64.0 miles (103.0 km) south of Carlisle, between the confluence of the River Kent estuary and the River Winster. In 2001 it had a population of 143, increasing slightly to 154 at the Census 2011. It included the village of Meathop.

Orton Moss is a Site of Special Scientific Interest located west of the city of Carlisle in northwest England.

Ham Wall Wetland nature reserve in Somerset, England

Ham Wall is an English wetland National Nature Reserve (NNR) 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) west of Glastonbury on the Somerset Levels. It is managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). Since the last Ice Age, decomposing plants in the marshes of the Brue valley in Somerset have accumulated as deep layers of peat that were commercially exploited on a large scale in the twentieth century. Consumer demand eventually declined, and in 1994 the landowners, Fisons, gave their old workings to what is now Natural England, who passed the management of the 260 hectares Ham Wall section to the RSPB.

Abbotts Moss Nature Reserve Nature reserve in Cheshire, England

Abbotts Moss is a 12-hectare (30-acre) nature reserve near Delamere Forest, northwest of Winsford, Cheshire. It is managed by the Cheshire Wildlife Trust under lease from the Forestry Commission and lies within a larger Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). The reserve is south of the A556 road near Sandiway and is divided in two by the Whitegate Way, a former railway line now used as a footpath and bridleway.

Danes Moss Nature Reserve

Danes Moss Nature Reserve is a 13.4-hectare (33-acre) nature reserve south of Macclesfield, Cheshire, England. A Site of Special Scientific Interest, it is managed by the Cheshire Wildlife Trust.

Roydon Common

Roydon Common is a 194.9-hectare (482-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest east of King's Lynn in Norfolk. It is also a Grade I Nature Conservation Review site, a National Nature Reserve and a Ramsar site. It is part of the Roydon Common and Dersingham Bog Special Area of Conservation and Roydon Common and Grimston Warren nature reserve, which is managed by the Norfolk Wildlife Trust,

Witherslack Mosses are a fragmented wetland west of the Kent estuary in Cumbria, England, within the Lake District National Park. They consist of three raised bogs, the remnants of a formerly extensive, estuarine bog, which have been protected under the Habitats Directive as a Special Area of Conservation.

Meathop Moss

Meathop Moss is a raised bog located north of Meathop in Cumbria, England. Protected as a nature reserve by the Cumbria Wildlife Trust, Meathop Moss is notable for its insect life. In 1965 it was designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. Along with two other raised bogs near the Kent estuary, it has been included in the Witherslack Mosses Special Area of Conservation which was designated in 2005.

Blawhorn Moss

Blawhorn Moss is a raised bog located to the northwest of the village of Blackridge, about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) west of Armadale in the council area of West Lothian in central Scotland. It is the largest and least disturbed raised bog in the Lothians, and has been a National Nature Reserve since 1980. It is owned and managed by NatureScot, the public body responsible for Scotland's natural heritage.

The Avalon Marshes Partnership is a group of conservation organisations working together in the Somerset Levels. The members are Natural England,, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), the Somerset Wildlife Trust the Hawk and Owl Trust, Historic England, South West Heritage Trust and the Environment Agency. Between 2012 and 2016 the scheme was supported by a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £1,772,500 with additional investment of £920,080 from other sources. The Avalon Marshes Centre, run by Natural England, is near the Ham Wall reserve. The network of reserves and private land managed for conservation in the Avalon marshes means that wetland management can be carried out on a landscape scale.

Moine Mhòr Area of raised bog in Argyll and Bute, Scotland

Moine Mhòr encompasses a large area of raised bog in the Kilmartin Glen area of Argyll and Bute, Scotland. As well as raised bog there are areas of saltmarsh, brackish grassland, alder carr, fen and woodland, and the variety of habitats at Moine Mhòr provide important habitats for a variety of animal and plant species. The area was declared a national nature reserve (NNR) in 1987, and is now owned and managed by NatureScot. According to NatureScot lowland raised bogs like Moine Mhòr are some of the rarest and most threatened natural wildlife habitats in Europe, due to removal of peat, afforestation and reclamation of farmland.

References

  1. "Witherslack Mosses (Site UK0030302)". European Environment Agency . Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  2. "Foulshaw Moss". Cumbria Wildlife Trust. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  3. "Rare dragonflies hatch at reserve following reintroduction". The Guardian . 2011. Retrieved 16 January 2013.
  4. Murphy, Tom (May 2014). "Ospreys seen at new site". The Westmorland Gazette . Retrieved 6 July 2014.
  5. 1 2 Dickinson, Katie (December 2014). "Cumbria Wildlife Trust awarded £60,000 to create 40 hectares of reedbed at Foulshaw Moss". The Westmorland Gazette. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
  6. https://www.cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk/news/excitement-breeding-ospreys-return-foulshaw-moss
  7. "New bird hides at flagship". Cumbria Wildlife Trust. Retrieved 27 March 2020.

Coordinates: 54°14′46″N2°49′44″W / 54.246°N 2.829°W / 54.246; -2.829