Recording a podcast and preparing for autumn
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© Nigel Thompson
Tuesday was a really busy day at Horton Quarry. Firstly, I arrived with journalist Nigel Thompson and a team from Lancaster University to record a podcast about the work we are doing at the site. This was an exciting opportunity funded by Lancaster University donor Philip Welch to help spread the word about what an amazing habitat limestone pavements are and the research we are doing to protect them for the future. It was great to have the opportunity to showcase the experiment, and we interviewed quarry staff and the grazier to set it in context. There are still a couple of remote interviews to do over the next few weeks, but watch this space, the podcast will be published by the end of September.
Carly and Nigel interviewing Dan, a member of the quarry team
While we were there I did some biomass sampling. This is collecting the vegetation from within a known area and weighing it to determine the biomass of the vegetation. This will enable me to show the initial effect of grazing on the grassland vegetation. We won’t really start to see the impacts of this experiment until next year, but this shows us that the treatments are effective. I also remarked the plots in the limestone pavement since the spray paint fades over time.
Carly cutting grass samples whilst Nigel records
Finally, we moved the grazing exclosures over to their winter locations. The sheep have been up in the area for the last couple of weeks, and the end of August marks the end of the summer grazing season. The sheep will be back for a winter grazing period over the winter so the plots are ready for them now. Although the Quarry Life Award finishes this autumn, the aim is to keep this experiment running over the next five years. It has been set up so that it is low maintenance and aligned with the sites management plan, meaning it can be run long-term with minimal costs. In a few years' time, we expect to see exciting results but for now, we have reached the end of an exciting first field season.
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