Fairy Water Valley Biodiversity Profile

In the following account of this LCA it should be noted that for consistency, the biodiversity section follows the standard order for all LCAs even though some of the communities discussed later may have more importance for biodiversity than those discussed earlier

Key Characteristics

• woodlands occupy about 4% of the LCA compared with around 5.6% for Northern Ireland as a whole
• hazel and ash woodlands in steep sided valleys and on hillsides
• wet woodlands and birch woodlands around bogs and on cut-over bog
• several woodlands are at least 'long-established' (at least from 1830) and some may be ancient woodlands; known ancient woodlands are rare in Northern Ireland
• grasslands cover about 80% of the LCA (Northern Ireland as a whole c.71%), of which just under two-thirds is in improved pasture
• extensive wet grassland, acid fen and patches of more species diverse purple moor grass - rush pastures surrounding the raised bogs
• internationally important concentration of lowland raised bogs with large intact surfaces surrounded by cut-over bog and wet grassland

Woodlands

Woodlands occupy about 4% of the LCA compared with around 5.6% for Northern Ireland as a whole. The border of the LCA has cut small areas of conifer forests into the southwest, generally parts of large forests in LCA 14. Sitka spruce is dominant in all these patches with some Japanese larch and Norway spruce and occasional pockets of broadleaves that increase the generally low biodiversity. Broadleaved woodland is scattered throughout the LCA and includes woodland on hillsides, in steep-sided river valleys and on cut-over bog.

Several of the woodlands on hillsides and in valleys are dominated by hazel. For example, Dunnaree Hill Wood is dominated by hazel and hawthorn although ash protrudes through the hazel canopy. The ground flora is typical of base-rich woods and is also rich in ferns and mosses. To the southwest of the quarry the canopy is higher and comprised of ash and birch with an understorey of dense, multi-stemmed hazel (upland mixed ashwood). Willmount Glen is also mainly hazel woodland.

Kirlish Wood is an old hazel coppice that, unusually in Northern Ireland, still retains some of its original layout including old compartment boundaries. At the top end of the wood the underlying rock is often exposed and is mostly covered with hazel, whereas the lower slopes, with a greater depth of soil, is covered with hazel with a canopy of oak - possibly planted as standards. A number of compartments in the centre of the wood are of semi-improved grassland. The wood has been grazed to varying degrees, which has had a detrimental effect on the ground flora. Meencarragh Wood, which extends into LCA14, is a large woodland stretching over two small glens and the higher hillside around. The glens are covered by hazel with a mature canopy of oak and beech on the western side of the Drumgallar Burn Valley. The eastern side of this glen and the higher ground beyond is planted with conifers. Out of the glens, the western half of the wood consists of birch scrub over cut-over peat while the central portion is formed of old coppiced hazel and birch. The ground cover is generally species poor and dominated by a few species of moss, except along the sides and bottoms of the glens where the ground flora is more diverse and typical of western acid woodlands.

Some of the glens show evidence of modification; Sloughan Glen, for example, has sessile oak, hazel, ash and birch, which may be native to the site, but also beech, wych elm and sycamore, that indicate planting. Nevertheless, the site has a rich herb and ground flora in parts, including bluebell and greater woodrush as well as the rare wood fescue and Dutch rush. The Drumquin River and its tributaries around Crooked Bridge show similar 'landscaping' with beech and copper beech scattered amongst the ash, oak and hazel.

Wet woodland scattered in its distribution and particularly evident on the edges of cut-over bogs and on cut-over areas around intact bogs. In these locations most of the acid peat has been removed to leave wet ground where alder and willow have colonized. Where a deeper depth of peat has been left and the ground is drier, birch has colonized the cut-over surface in some bogs, often forming almost pure birch woodland. An example is at Water Hill where the cut-over edge has dense alder and willow with birch on the drier ground; this site, however, also has some conifer plantation.

Grassland and Arable

Grasslands cover about 80% of the LCA (Northern Ireland as a whole c.71%), of which just under two-thirds is in improved pasture (compared with nearly three-quarters for Northern Ireland). The valleys of the Fairy Water and Drumquin River are broad and have only a very slight gradient so that in addition to the large expanse of lowland raised bog, there are also extensive wet grasslands. Improved grasslands in these valleys occur only where the field drainage is improved, either because of slightly higher ground or because field drains have been laid. Most of the improved pasture is on the outer edges of the valleys.

Improved pastures generally have low biodiversity as a result of relatively intensive management. Some of the pastures are sown grasslands dominated by ryegrass and few other species - low biodiversity is in-built. Other grasslands have been converted to improved pastures through management. High levels of grazing or repeated cutting for silage, high inputs of fertilizers and slurry, and selective herbicides serve to reduce diversity of both flora and fauna.

Biodiversity in areas of improved pastures and arable is often concentrated in hedgerows. Indeed, they may be the most significant wildlife habitat over much of lowland Northern Ireland, especially where there are few semi-natural habitats. Hedgerows are a refuge for many woodland and farmland plants and animals. In this LCA, predominantly hawthorn hedgerows are generally confined to the improved pastures at the edges of the valleys and are treed - commonly ash - but towards the upland slopes field boundaries change to a mix of poor hedges, fences and walls whereas towards the centre of the valleys field boundaries are often indistinct, of fences or remnant banks.

Many of the unimproved fields in the Blackwater and Drumquin river valleys are dominated by rushes, as are such fields in the Fairy Water valley, but there they merge with poor fen and acid and marshy grassland that surrounds the bogs. These are generally species poor and dominated by purple moor grass, but there are small patches where the ground water is more mobile and/or more nutrient rich and have greater plant species diversity (purple moor grass and rush pastures).

Along the southern border of the LCA more of the upland slopes have been included; these are also of generally low plant species diversity, but because of the marginal position with streams and soakaways, and because of the past history of peat cutting there can be diversity of both habitats and species. Islands of deeper, drier peat left by cutting may be heather dominated; flushes or soakaways may have sweet gale, sharp flowered rush, tormentil and carnation sedge with purple moor-grass; and lower down the hillside there can be short-grazed and sedge-rich swards dominated by carnation sedge, tawny sedge, glaucous sedge and devil's bit scabious, whereas other fields may be almost entirely rush dominated.

The intricate mix of land cover types within the farmed area - improved pastures, acid and swamp grasslands, woodlands and hedges - has provided habitats for several of the bird Priority Species; these include bullfinch, reed bunting, skylark and song thrush and breeding curlew have been recorded from the wet grasslands.

Heaths and Bogs

The LCA contains one of the most important concentrations of lowland raised bog in Northern Ireland. Lowland raised bog is a rare habitat in the UK, and Northern Ireland has a large proportion of that remaining; in particular it has much of the intact lowland bog. In the best examples there is a diversity of structural features including hummocks and hollows and pools that give rise to micro-habitats related especially to the height of the water table. The plant species are adapted not only to the generally waterlogged, acid and low nutrient conditions, but also to these small-scale variations in topography and water level. Typical plant species include bog mosses, deer sedge, cotton sedges, bog asphodel, sundews, cross-leaved heath and common heather.

The Fairy Water Bogs ASSI (also Fairy Water Bogs SAC and Fairy Water Bogs Ramsar site) is a series of three relatively intact active raised bogs - Bomackatall, Claragh and Kilmore Robinson. As other bog complexes in Northern Ireland have suffered much more severe exploitation, the overall extent of intact bog makes this complex unique. The bogs are similar in vegetation to western blanket bogs, as shown by the presence of the oceanic liverwort Pleurozia purpurea. Each bog has a classic dome structure and has developed over basins in the underlying surface. Hummocks and hollows are also well developed, with significant pool complexes at Claragh and Bomackatall. The relatively rare bog mosses Sphagnum imbricatum and S. fuscum are widespread, with S. fuscum especially abundant on Kilmore Robinson.

These raised bogs are important for wetland birds; breeding lapwing, snipe and curlew are recorded and there are some older records from the vicinity of the bogs for the corncrake.

Within the ASSI the protected areas have escaped extensive mechanical extraction of peat, but it has taken place in the east of the LCA in Garvaghullion and as small incidences on cut-over areas.

Wetlands and Lakes

Reedbeds are of limited extent in the LCA and are confined to narrow strips around some of the lakes - for example, Drumquin Lough and the small ponds at Claraghmore. The marsh fritillary butterfly is recorded from Drumquin Lough. At Annaghs Lough, on the margin of Bomackatall bog, there are various stages in the vegetation succession from open water to peaty swamp and fen. Fen is also found around the three loughs mentioned above, but poor acid fen is more widespread around the raised bogs, forming where most of the acid peat has been removed by cutting to leave wet areas with more mobile mineral water; it merges with acidic and swampy grassland. None of the lakes surveyed by the Northern Ireland Lake Survey was given high priority for biological interest, but Killen Lough, Drumquin Lough, Claraghmore A and Envagh Lough were all classed as mesotrophic lakes, that is, characterised by having a middle level of nutrients between nutrient poor (oligotrophic) and nutrient rich (eutrophic). Mesotrophic lakes potentially have the highest macrophyte diversity of any lake type. Furthermore, relative to other lake types, can contain a higher proportion of nationally scarce and rare aquatic plants. This is an increasingly rare type of lake in Northern Ireland because the nutrient status of many is being increased through input of water from agricultural land that has had applications of fertilizers and slurry.

The Fairy Water has river water crowfoot and is a trout stream.

Key Issues

General actions for UK and NI Priority Habitats and Priority Species are detailed in the Habitat Action Plans and Species Action Plans.

WOODLANDS

Issue: low woodland cover of variable biodiversity value

Actions:

• further study of the history and ecology of broadleaved woodlands particularly any ancient and long-established, as a key to future management
• encourage control of grazing in broadleaved woodlands to foster regeneration and if necessary, encourage replanting of canopy species
• encourage planting of native broadleaved plantations rather than the small conifer plantations which are of poor biodiversity and landscape value
• retain established birch and wet woodland on and around bogs by preventing drainage, land-fill, fly tipping

GRASSLAND AND ARABLE

Issue: poor biodiversity of farmland

Actions:

• maintain and improve field boundaries especially hedgerows - where part of the traditional landscape. This may be achieved through adoption of correct cutting cycles; hedge laying and replanting where necessary; leaving saplings uncut to develop into hedgerow trees; avoidance of spraying with fertilizers, slurry, herbicides; provision of wildlife strips and conservation headlands around fields; and limitation of field amalgamation
• encourage (through participation in Environmental Schemes) adoption of less intensive management of pastures to allow reversion to more species-rich grassland and protect unsown areas of wet grassland; in particular protect any areas of more species-rich purple moor grass and rush pasture
• encourage management of wet grasslands also to enhance habitats for wetland birds

HEATH AND BOGS

Issue: a concentration of raised bogs of national and international importance

Actions:

• maintain the integrity of existing lowland raised bogs by for example, preventing infilling, fly-tipping, fires, new drainage and new peat cutting
• consider restoration of raised bog habitats through appropriate water level management and removal of individual colonizing trees
• undertake further work on composition of habitats surrounding the bogs and consider whether widening the protected area is required
• prevent new forest planting on raised bog, even on cut-over margins

WETLANDS

Issue: mesotrophic lakes and generally good river water quality

Actions:

• protect water quality of lakes and rivers through nutrient management, thus
• promote and encourage existing good farming practices so that streams are not polluted by run-off from agricultural land or seepage from silage pits
• monitor streams in relation to expansion of rural housing and associated septic tanks/sewage treatment plants

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