Bracken: Friend or Phobia?

The more you get to know these parts of the moors the more you get to understand the bracken and its role in the landscape. A woman at Saturday's meeting was sure something needed to be done about it, reflecting the general view put out by managers that our countryside always has to be managed and cannot be allowed to go its own way. She was an orienteer and the bracken apparently severely limited her group from pursuing its activities. Interesting that they want nature to conform to human needs rather than the other way round. I've never done orienteering so had always thought that the idea was to combine vigorous activity with navigating wilder areas, but then I suppose they want things just so wild and no more. More surprising was the view expressed that this problem for them continued in winter months as well. My observation is that bracken is no longer a 'difficulty' in September through to June and I had always thought we could allow the 'flat-track-bully' of the plant world a couple of months pushiness before it settled down to contribute colourfully to the autumn and winter views.

But bracken is a plant I've grown to enjoy after observing it over the years. There may be some justice in calling it invasive, but that is a result of its resourceful colonisation through its root spread. The truth is that we only get the bracken we deserve. If we had not been guilty of artificially denuding the landscape of trees in order to exploit it for intensive food and wool production and as shooting estates for the privileged then the trees would have controlled bracken spread - and will again if we give them the chance. Like most successful plants bracken is opportunist. Those who 'bash the birch' and try to keep heathlnad free from trees are making it more likely that bracken will spread, after which managers and farmers want to spray the bracken and create a certain kind of artificial grassland. That in its turn suggests that cattle and sheep come in to crop the grass. One thing leads to another. and we finish up with a totally artificial prospect that looks the same for 11 months of the year.

But bracken can be beautiful when combined with bilberry and heather and the wildlife that thrive when these plants run wild. Autumn is a good time to observe them all contributing to the effect. (But please just don't mention that word 'mosaic' one of the overworked cliches of the conservation world.) And wildlife needs cover - in very short supply on grazed and burned grouse moors. It's bracken that steps in to provide it, most obviously for the largest native mammal we have who can all but disappear among the fronds.