Bog Asphodel

I'm pretty sure that the flowers of the Bog Asphodel that we can see now are all there are going to be this year and it's time to draw some conclusions. People who visit this spot in July have loved to see this flower and naturalists have brought parties to Blacka specially to show them the display. In previous years they have stretched for many yards past the wooden sleeper bridge in a heart-warming spread of colour mingling with the pink/purple of bell heather. This was all achieved with no input from management and before SWT's management plan was put in place. One naturalist showed me some photographs he had taken before and after the council decision to put sheep on the moor in 1983 - the sheep had eaten nearly all of the flowers. No wonder he was so opposed to the cattle grazing plan.

Approaching Cowsick Bog

But it is not the cattle grazing itself that has caused the great reduction of the number of flowers we see today. It is SWT's other misguided policy of flooding the area by placing plywood dams all over the bog without planning the consequences for access. They decided to "improve" the bog, by making it more boggy and extending it. It has certainly changed things but like so many of their attempts to intervene they seem unable to think ahead and predict the consequences. They were criticised at the very outset about this. Running across Cowsick bog is a public right of way, a footpath which has always been a bit of a muddy walk. But SWT's action in installing the dams changed this. And when it did people using the path moved to the side avoiding the swampy ground. Unfortunately this took them over the ground where Bog Asphodel grew; as this was autumn and winter there was nothing visible to alert visitors to the damage being done intrampling over this ground. But SWT did know about the damage (they surely must have known) and did absolutely nothing. Months went by during which the trampling went on and the flooding continued and still no action came from SWT. No attempt was made to mitigate the damage caused by the flooding of the public path either by diverting walkers or any other strategy. This went on for a year after which criticism led SWT to improve the path when they were given some money: they placed stone slabs and another sleeper bridge along a section of the original path. But this was too late to save the Bog Asphodel display and the showing in 2007 was disappointing leaving some of us hoping that things would improve this year.

In 2006 before this area was flooded by SWT's dams

Unfortunately we had reckoned without the effects of SWT's dams. Progressively since they were installed they have raised the water level over the whole area and by now the water in the 'sump' pool is up to the level of the sleeper bridge and threatening to engulf even the new slabs. At the same time the area that was once a riot of yellow flowers is now flooded with swampy water and only remarkable for dense growth of common rushes which love the waterlogged conditions.

 

In 2008 this area now dominated by swamp loving rushes

The Bog Asphodel flowers that remain are the plants nearer to the bridge in the less flooded section. This plant likes damp conditions but does not enjoy being completely under water. Is it perhaps too much to expect a wildlife trust to know this? Blacka is largely poor acid soil and has limited scope for flower displays so the decline in the one genuinely colourful spectacle is particularly unfortunate. Nobody who knows Blacka can doubt where responsibility lies for this, but if we know one thing about SWT it is that they will deny what they've done has caused this - or even deny it's happened at all.