The Freshwater Habitats Trust's Oxfordshire Fens Project
Hinksey Heights fen
FHT website, with 2019 reports by David Morris and Steve Gregory
Hinksey Heights Fen and Newt Conservation
You can contact the FHT about volunteering via this website
or email [email protected]
This fen is one of four privately-owned SSSIs that are benefitting from a
WEG [Water Environment Grant] SSSI Fen Restoration obtained by the FWT
Hinksey Heights Nature Trail
Oxfordshire Education Authority successfully secured funding from other charitable bodies,
including the Trust for Oxfordshire’s Environment (TOE)
to build two forest schools and a boardwalk through the Nature Trail.
FHT website, with 2019 reports by David Morris and Steve Gregory
Hinksey Heights Fen and Newt Conservation
You can contact the FHT about volunteering via this website
or email [email protected]
This fen is one of four privately-owned SSSIs that are benefitting from a
WEG [Water Environment Grant] SSSI Fen Restoration obtained by the FWT
Hinksey Heights Nature Trail
Oxfordshire Education Authority successfully secured funding from other charitable bodies,
including the Trust for Oxfordshire’s Environment (TOE)
to build two forest schools and a boardwalk through the Nature Trail.
8 January 2023 Adam Bows (Catchment Officer, Freshwater Habitats Trust) tweeted: Fen restoration involves a lot of scything and raking from hard-working volunteers. Hopefully one day this special Fen at Hinksey Heights will have extensive grazing again.
3 July 2022 Thanks tweeted by Judy to members of Abingdon Green Gym 'for lots of hard work yesterday in Hinksey Heights fen! Heaps of small balsam pulled in time to stop it seeding, scything and raking reed and cutting back bramble, sedge and giant horsetail along a good section of the boardwalk' Judy' photos are here
See also Abingdon Green Gym Blog, Eleanor Baker, 5 July 2022 |
See Judy's article (June 2020): “The use of Marsh Lousewort as an ecosystem engineer in fen restoration”.
A link to it is posted on the Freshwater Habitats Trust website. More tweets about Hinksey Heights fen: 13 September 2022 see Judy's tweet for photos Freshwater Habitats Trust volunteers getting on well with fen scything and raking recently, plus all important job of pulling dead Marsh Lousewort plants and moving them on to cleared areas to shed seed and reduce reed growth in future. So much plant biodiversity results! 9 May 2022 Judy tweeted photos of the effect on fen vegetation of the hemi-parasite, marsh lousewort, Pedicularis palustris, including the one above, taken at Hinksey Heights fen: 'You can see the frilly rosettes of the m. louseworts not yet in flower in foreground - here they have eliminated the strong spring growth of the reed'. In the background is the wall of unaffected reed, which did not have marsh lousewort seed sprinkled on it two years ago. |
15 March 2022
Judy's tweet from Hinksey Heights: Restoring alkaline-spring fens in Oxfordshire. Winter scything is done, but now raking of cut reed off the surface is vital. A big job in this newly cut area of Hinksey Heights fen, but enthusiasm & teamwork get the work done! Want to join the vols to help? Contact details for Freshwater Habitats Trust are here To see the lads in action, click here |
13 December 2021 Tweet by David Morris, Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) Oxfordshire v.c. 23 Recorder and Freshwater Habitats Trust Senior Plant Ecologist: 'The result of 3 years' hard graft really brought home at Hinksey Heights Nature Trail at Sunday’s [11 Dec] fen restoration work party. Brought a new area of overgrown fen into management for Oxon Freshwater Network - horrid 3m high reed over deep mulch and very little other plant life. Next to it, an area that was like that 3 years ago. Now it’s full of wetland plants, many returned from the seedbank, like Blunt Flowered Rush, Marsh Arrowgrass and Square-stalked St John's-wort, and we’ve restored Black Bog-rush and mosses to the tufa springs hidden by the reeds'. Photos by David + two by Judy Webb are here |
12 September 2021
Continued attack on the reed - Jim Ballantyne, an expert scyther, was helped by other regular Sunday volunteers in raking up. Photos of the group working that day and others taken from the Hinksey Heights Nature Trail (going east from area where work was being done) are here. Click on first photo to open slideshow. Then click on 'i' in white circle (top right) for information.
Continued attack on the reed - Jim Ballantyne, an expert scyther, was helped by other regular Sunday volunteers in raking up. Photos of the group working that day and others taken from the Hinksey Heights Nature Trail (going east from area where work was being done) are here. Click on first photo to open slideshow. Then click on 'i' in white circle (top right) for information.
10 August 2021 Judy tweeted:
'Fen restoration requires a great deal of cutting and raking to bring back short biodiverse turf. At Hinksey Heights fen near Oxford the Oxon Fens Project volunteers were hard at it last weekend. Here's skilled Austrian scyther Jim using his big grass blade on some soft reed re-growth and here is the result after 3 years of restoration work - monoculture dominant reed reduced plus vastly improved species diversity using parasitic marsh lousewort to help' - photos and snip from tweet here
'Fen restoration requires a great deal of cutting and raking to bring back short biodiverse turf. At Hinksey Heights fen near Oxford the Oxon Fens Project volunteers were hard at it last weekend. Here's skilled Austrian scyther Jim using his big grass blade on some soft reed re-growth and here is the result after 3 years of restoration work - monoculture dominant reed reduced plus vastly improved species diversity using parasitic marsh lousewort to help' - photos and snip from tweet here
13 July 2021 Judy tweeted:
Hinksey Heights fen restoration going well. The parsley water-dropwort, Oenanthe lachenalii, (white flowers) is just coming into flower (good nectar source) and the effects of 'lousewortizing' clear. After an early cut, the reed re-growth is stunted and dwarfed by carpet of small marsh louseworts. A hemi-parasitic biennial, marsh lousewort can diversify plant community and assist in reducing dominant reed, sedge and rush - see my article for the Oxfordshire Fens Project - available via website of The Freshwater Habitats Trust. Judy's accompanying photos are available here.
Hinksey Heights fen restoration going well. The parsley water-dropwort, Oenanthe lachenalii, (white flowers) is just coming into flower (good nectar source) and the effects of 'lousewortizing' clear. After an early cut, the reed re-growth is stunted and dwarfed by carpet of small marsh louseworts. A hemi-parasitic biennial, marsh lousewort can diversify plant community and assist in reducing dominant reed, sedge and rush - see my article for the Oxfordshire Fens Project - available via website of The Freshwater Habitats Trust. Judy's accompanying photos are available here.
10 October 2020
Lovely weather for Hinksey Heights fen volunteers scything, raking and spreading hay containing marsh lousewort, Pedicularis palustris* seed on areas that do not already have this plant. In the first of the photos by Judy Webb members of the public walking by can be seen watching the rakers at work. *See Judy's explanation of the benefits of this plant in fen restoration.
Lovely weather for Hinksey Heights fen volunteers scything, raking and spreading hay containing marsh lousewort, Pedicularis palustris* seed on areas that do not already have this plant. In the first of the photos by Judy Webb members of the public walking by can be seen watching the rakers at work. *See Judy's explanation of the benefits of this plant in fen restoration.