Manage Scrub for Widllife
What:
Scrub refers to areas of low, woody vegetation like whitethorn, brambles, gorse, or willow. It is a transitional habitat that will develop into woodland over time. Scrub provides food, shelter, and safety for a variety of wildlife and enhances habitat connectivity.
Where:
Scrub tends to emerge in areas that are no longer grazed or managed regularly, commonly along hedgerows, on abandoned grassland areas, at the edges of existing woodland, in field corners, or along waterways.
How:
Decide how much land you are willing to give over to scrub. Managing land for nature is all about providing a variety of wildlife habitats. While scrub is good for nature, its spread can negatively impact biodiversity if it is encroaching on valuable habitats such as flower-rich grasslands.
- To create new scrub habitat, simply stop managing (cutting or grazing) a section of grassland and allow vegetation to regenerate naturally. If there’s limited local seed source or natural spread, you can speed up the process by densely planting a corner with a few key species—such as whitethorn, blackthorn, bramble, or willow.
- To foster existing scrub habitat for woodland development, allow your scrub to mature. Scrub is a transitional habitat that will naturally develop into woodland over time. You can also mimic the role of food-caching animals like jays or squirrels by burying acorns and hazelnuts in the scrub to encourage tree growth.
- To control scrub growth and manage its spread, cut manually or use light livestock browsing.
Benefits
Scrub offers a layered structure with dense cover and small clearings, creating a highly diverse environment for wildlife. Whitethorn, willow and brambles are important sources of food for bees and insects, which in turn are food for birds and bats. The dense branches of scrub also provide roosting and nesting sites for many bird species. Thorny shrubs can act as a nursery for young trees by sheltering them from wind and protecting them from browsing livestock. Woodlands that grow from the natural seed bank in the soil have been shown to be more resilient and better suited to the local environment than those that are planted.