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DANBURY COUNTRY PARK
Essex County Council have published the results of two surveys undertaken at Danbury
Country Park by the Warden Chris Rawlings, also a Council member of the Field Club.
The first report contains the results of butterfly transects for the years 1990, 1991 and
1992 and the second is of the results of a survey of the Orthoptera families Acrididae
(Grasshoppers) and Tettigoniidae (Bush Crickets). Extracts of these two reports are
contained below.
The Country Park totals 41 acres and comprises woodland, grassland, ornamental lakes
and gardens. It is a heavily used recreational site with an annual visitor turnover of
350,000.
A native woodland area has until recently remained unmanaged for many years, resulting
in high forest with a dense canopy with the exception of a network of access rides. The
shading has restricted the growth of a scrub layer and of flowering plants and the
woodland floor was predominantly barren.
However in the winter of 1989/1990 a coppice regime was reinstated, combined with a
plan to eventually eradicate the introduced and steadily encroaching sycamore. Coppiced
plots quickly developed a healthy growth of bramble, nettle and rosebay Willowherb, with
the majority of coppice stools also showing healthy growth. Hazel, previously absent
within the park, was planted immediately after the coppicing.
Since the summer of 1989 a meadow that had been uniformly close mown for many years
has had a rota mowing regime activated. This has resulted in the diversification of heights
and thickness of grasses, still providing areas of recreation but also providing
opportunities for butterflies and other invertebrates to thrive among the grasses and
flowers. Other grassland cut once a year in autumn provide areas with flowers including
an impressive colony of harebells and heath and yellow bedstraw.
In 1990 a butterfly transect was established in order to obtain information regarding
species and numbers of butterflies present within the park. The same transect has thus
been repeated in 1991 and 1992 in order to obtain information regarding butterfly
population fluctuations within the same area.
The transect line was divided into ten sections, taking in all of the habitat diversities
within the park.The rules set out for the National Butterfly Monitoring Scheme by the
Institute of Terrestrial Ecology were followed.
It is noted with disappointment that no such survey was carried out during the more
formal years of management prior to the rota mowing and coppice regime beginning in
1989. This means that there is no quantitative comparison between the butterfly
populations of two very different management regimes over a period of years on the same
area of ground. It is hoped that the established routine can be continued from here on.