Contract to deliver Floral Restoration Plan for Morecambe Bay

Delivery of a floral restoration plan for Headlands to Headspace (H2H), Morecambe Bay’s Landscape Partnership Scheme.

Morecambe Bay Partnership wishes to appoint an independent ecologist to produce a Floral Heritage Restoration Plan.

Additional information: The headlands and grasslands overlooking Morecambe Bay have a suite of species that is unique. These include such specialities as spiked speedwell, Goldilock’s aster, Maidenhair fern, spotted cat’s-ear and Autumn ladies-tresses, species for whom the special combination of maritime exposure, limestone soils and topography make this a home to be shared with a wider host of specialist species.

While locally many of these plants are thriving, across the landscape they are increasingly isolated with many populations having dwindled to extinction in the face of agricultural improvement, abandonment of management on sites that are difficult to graze and the increasing populations of invasive species such as cotoneaster.

Although land management can support the needs of established species in some cases it is other factors that prevent recovery – limited genetic resource, poor dispersal, isolated individuals in the population.

Rectifying this will require the integration of habitat management and a range of other targeted measures such as reintroduction, ex-situ propagation, and facilitated dispersal. Options will be explored for some of the species most in need such as:

• Golilock’s aster, now apparently extinct. This species would benefit from a programme linking propagation, monitoring and reintroduction to HLS management of the coastal grassland.

• Spiked speedwell - now extinct in the Lancashire part of the Bay. Spiked speedwell (in herb-rich coastal turf) – locally abundant where it survives and appropriate land management is secured, but lost from many sites. This species would benefit from facilitated dispersal in combination with habitat management to restore it to its historic range.

These are the 2 species that have been prioritised for reintroductions under this funding. However, the following species should also be explored for re-introduction as they have the same specialist habitat requirements:

• Maidenhair fern
• Spotted cat’s-ear
• Autumn ladies-tresses

The aim of this work is to

• identify suitable sites for reintroduction (receptor sites), following sufficient research from a variety of (identified) sources.
• identify suitable sites for sourcing seed/plants (donor sites), following sufficient research from a variety of sources.
• produce an Action Plan, setting out how delivery of the project should take place.

For full details please download Project Brief.