Creating Shrublands: brash piles

In my Shrublands booklet (https://amzn.to/47xiT4b) I identified some things one might do early on to set up a new species-rich grassy-shrubland to optimise nature recovery within it. One early intervention is the introduction of brash piles.

Grassy shrubland mosaics support many species of conservation concern

An AI rendering of a Red-backed Shrike. Certainly shrike-like….

The ideal site for a shrubland will be a species-poor arable field or area of open grassland. You want to kick-off the colonisation of your site by native herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees, and to induce animals to venture out from the margins. Although not native, Rabbits are a very useful instigator of habitat heterogeneity, creating the patchy soil disturbance, wrinkled landforms and micro-habitats one wants in a good quality shrubland. Brash piles can encourage them to move in. They can also attract seed-dispersing birds such as Song Thrushes and Black Birds. And even dead brash can provide a protective wall allowing ‘rough’ herbaceous vegetation to grow up a bit amongst the twigs - just the sort of spots Yellowhammers and Stonechats might position a nest. In time, that protection will also enable woody species to get going. Bramble will likely appear quickly but cuttings take readily and could be pocked in amongst the twigs, providing an early, thorny, natural barbed wire mound that will further shield seedlings from browsers.

A brash pile is simply a heap of twigs, branches and some cut logs, one or a few cubic metres in volume. Create a few, widely spaced across the site.

This very simple early intervention can give fairly dramatic results. Read more about this, and some other shrubland creation elements, in my booklet (this is an Amazon affiliate link and I receive a small commission from Amazon should you purchase a copy, as well as book royalties): https://amzn.to/47xiT4b