VISIT TO THE WEST SUFFOLK SITES HELD BY THE COUNTY TRUST FOR NATURE CONSERVATION P . J. O .
TRIST
ON the 25th May, 1968, a party of seventy including members of the Society and the Suffolk and Norfolk Naturalists' T r u s t s for Conservation met at noon at Wangford Warren to visit three sites in West Suffolk. T h e Warren is one of two remaining acreas of active erosion in the Breckland and has several interesting features of abrupt changes in ground flora. T h e s e include bracken colonisation adjoining common reed: a barren area almost entirely colonised by liehen and an area of active erosion, parts of which are being arrested by the long rhizomes of the Sand Sedge (Carex arenaria). T h e local Committee of Management has arranged for the thinning out of a n u m b e r of invading pines on the north side of the Warren. If these were allowed to grow an unnatural process of arresting the erosion would occur. A three Strand wire fence has been erected along the road which now prevents the entry of cars and motor-cycles which formerly ran over the dunes. A T r u s t noticeboard is erected by a stile which spans the fence. After lunch the party left for the Poors Fen at Lakenheath. Here the T r u s t has acquired by lease an area of twelve acres of unreclaimed fen which was rescued from the fate of the plough. T h i s area of the fen forms part of the larger area of the Poors Fen now in arable cultivation. It will be managed by grazing, controlled burning and cutting according to requirements in order to prevent dominant species taking control. In recent years attention has been given to the adjoining ditches which drain the arable portion of the fen and the Situation to preserve the normal wet habitat of the T r u s t ' s area will have to be carefully watched. Unfortunately Viola stagnina has already been lost but our portion provides an extremely interesting collection of flora including large colonies of Calamagrostis canescens, Salix repens, and Cladium mariscus. T h e day concluded with a visit to T u d d e n h a m Gallops where the T r u s t has leased a small strip of typical Breckland. It is proposed by m i n i m u m annual cultivations to maintain this area in open breck condition and to provide a habitat for some of the rarer breck species which have a particular preference for disturbed soil. Seeds of Veronica triphyllos, V. verna and V. praecox have been sown and these plants were still to be seen by the visiting party. An adjacent row of pines is also included in the area of the lease and is thickly colonised with Montia perfoliata and Euphorbia cyparissias.