Lincolnshire & Rutland Limestone Natural Area
This natural area, about one fifth the size of Lincolnshire, is defined by its underlying limestone geology. The thin lime-rich soils found here can support a very high biodiversity if limestone grassland can be conserved. Limestone grassland now only occupies a tiny proportion (0.07%) of this area where it was once a characteristic part of the landscape. The little that remains of this habitat is among the most fragmented of its kind in the country.
A report published by Plant Life in 2000 (see right hand column) ranks Lincolnshire second highest among all English counties for its rate of local extinctions of flowering plants. Lincolnshire lost 77 flowering plants between 1900-85, which amounts to almost one species per year.
The location of all that is left is not yet known; but it is thought that most parishes in the area contain some flower-rich road verges.
Road verges represent a vital opportunity to link the few remaining patches of grassland across the landscape. A well cared for network of verges can act as green corridors that help plants and animals move as they need to cope with disturbance and adapt to climate change.
In places verges are as much as 20m wide, where the Enclosure Acts provided for roadside grazing along drove roads. A few verges, such as those along High Dike north of Ancaster, are so important that they have been designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest.
Lincolnshire's Protected Roadside Verge Scheme (now known as the Roadside Nature Reserve Scheme), adopted in 1960, was the first in the UK and now forms a basis upon which further work can be done to ensure the survival of this threatened habitat.
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Pyramidal Orchid |
Greater Knapweed |
Click here to find out what Life on the Verge is doing
in the Lincolnshire Wolds.
