Hartland’s Verges
Road verges play a crucial role in conservation which all too often goes unnoticed. Nationally we have almost 251,000 acres of rural road verges, home to 703 species of wild plants, 87 of which are facing extinction. Looking after our verges is not just about protecting rare plants, it is about protecting wildlife. Just one type of wild plant can support a whole ecosystem and may provide food for over 100 different species. Verges are key habitats for pollinators such as bees, butterflies and moths and key corridors for small mammals like hedgehogs whose numbers have seen huge declines in recent years.
Twenty years ago the great majority of roadside verges in the Parish supported a wonderful diversity of plants through the seasons. In the spring the ubiquitous primroses, celandines, wood sorrel, golden saxifrage and dog’s mercury, giving way to red campion, garlic mustard, and cow parsley and then the larger umbellifers, sorrels, meadowsweet, etc. In 2012 a small group of us undertook to survey some chosen road verges in the Parish; to look at and record each species of wild plant along a designated stretch of verge. In total, we surveyed 22 verges in different locations; a drop in the ocean in terms of the true number of verges, but our results were interesting and showed that we had some good biodiverse verges (with more than 50 species of plant) as well as some really poor verges.
Sadly since this project finished, road verges in the Parish have deteriorated considerably and we have lost some of the plant diversity that we had even five years ago. Now, most of the good verges have disappeared and virtually become monocultures of nettles and docks.
Eutrophication is a major factor in species decline on verges – caused in the main by agricultural run-off, spillage and vehicle traffic. Two elements, nitrogen and phosphorus are the culprits – both are essential for plants yet overfeeding tips the balance and allows only certain varieties of plant to survive. Nettles are a typical symptom of creeping nutrient enrichment, and these are increasing at an alarming rate in the verges and hedgerows in Hartland. Whilst the road verges are perhaps the most obvious sites of nutrient pollution, watercourses, ponds and woodlands also suffer. We have some of the best lichen communities in our Atlantic woods here and these are highly sensitive to nutrient pollution and showing are sadly also showing changes.
Another factor in the increasingly poor roadside verge plant communities is the destruction of the verge and/or the compaction of the soil due to heavy vehicles driving over verges.
There are several small things we can all do; recycle organic waste on the land to reduce the use of imported nitrogen and phosphorus and use less artificial fertilisers in our gardens; make sure that when we fertilise with organic waste such as manure, we only apply it in periods of dry weather and away from watercourses, and use greener cleaning products such as phosphate free detergents. We can also try not to drive over large areas of verge instead of reversing to known passing places!
The great majority of people living in the Parish all care about wildflowers and love to see them, so let us collectively do something to stop this frightening march. Get involved in monitoring the state of our plants or adopt a local verge and try to get involved in sympathetic management. HNS has been trying to look after just one verge in the Parish – with some more volunteers we could do more…
Norton Verge
We have been looking after/trying to look after one verge in Hartland – Norton verge. This has an amazing display of very tall Southern Marsh Orchids – often up to 40 individuals – and we have been attempting to protect them and to manage the very and stop the encroachment of Hemlock Water Dropwort.
See More details here on this website Norton Survey
Plantlife has a campaign for road verges and has produced a handy booklet to help guide good management
https://www.plantlife.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Good_verge_guide_2021.pdf
Please let me know if
- You would like to help with Norton verge
- Know of a local verge with good species diversity that we can survey
- Would like to undertake some verge survey work
chair@hartlandnaturesociety.org.uk