Black Cat Green Lane Local Wildlife Site

Location:  Fyfield

Designation:  Local Wildlife Site EPW094

Length:  1.1km

Owners:  Private

Grid reference: TL 554 097 (W) to TL 560090 (E) to TL 557 092 (S)

Description:  Part of Blackcat Green Lane is a byway open to all traffic.  The eastern part is a public footpath.  It joins two minor roads, one in Little Laver, one in Fyfield.  The western half of the east-west part of the path is the parish boundary between Fyfield and Abbess Roding, the eastern end is the boundary between Fyfield and Beauchamp Roding.  The southern end finishes at White’s Wood.  The landscape is arable with many tracks and footpaths along or across fields.  There are scattered, fragmented small areas of ancient woodland in the area.  Ordnance Survey maps from 1805 show that White’s Wood and Norwood were joined.  The lane provides an important corridor for wildlife, running between two arable fields and connecting other hedgerows in the area.

The lane contains over a dozen veteran trees, six of which are boundary Oak pollards which are good habitat for bats and invertebrates due to the hollows and holes and different decay stages of the dead wood.  The average number of species per 30m in the hedge is five which dates the hedges at about 500 years old according to Hooper’s Rule.  Some of the characteristic flora of an ancient wood are visible in the lane.

NI197:  as part of the District Council’s commitment to NI197 (Biodiversity of Local Wildlife Sites) Countrycare has been working with the landowners to draw up a management statement and undertake some practical improvement works with volunteers.

Management Objectives:

• Manage hedgerow by coppicing and planting to maintain the structure of the canopy and scrubby field layer.
• Manage the scrub within the lane to ensure the diversity of ground flora and ensure light reaches the floor of the lane.
• Manage in good condition the veteran trees along the lane.

Key tasks:

• Plant up gaps in hedges to maintain connectivity, especially at the western end.

Over two days in December 2009 volunteers planted about 100m of hedgerow.