Restoring and maintaining the Sandlings requires a variety of management approaches - many are experimental and reflect the pioneering nature of the conservation effort to safeguard the Sandlings.

The restoration and maintenance work focusses on:
- reducing encroachment by invasive species
- increasing the area of heathland by re-creation works
- restoring traditional grazing management
- linking the fragmented sites together

Hand in hand with this is the need to increase public awareness of heathlands through volunteer tasks, events and publicity.

Scroll down the page or browse the quick-list below to find out more about the work on the Sandlings.

Scrub clearance	Tree clearance	Re-creation
Grazing	Controlling bracken	Forestry

Management approach 1 - Scrub clearance
Scrub management work is very variable on the Sandlings heaths. There are three key species, namely birch, pine and gorse, and the management can have two separate aims; coppicing or eradication. Coppicing is generally restricted to gorse management, aiming to create dense growth up to 8 - 10 years old which provides ideal nesting sites for a range of heathland bird species such as the Linnet.

Whether coppicing or eradicating scrub, the operation is very similar. Scrub and trees are cleared in the October to March period by hand pulling or felling using hand tools, clearing saws or chainsaws, depending on the situation. Material that can be made use of is set aside, the smaller birch stems being bundled into faggots for horse jumps or estuary revetment work and the larger trees logged for firewood. Some wood is chipped and used as garden mulch. Waste material is usually burnt or stacked on site. The variation in management between species and aims comes with the timing of the operations and with the treatment after felling.

Where pine scrub is being cleared the operation is usually a simple one, with a single cutting and burning session being sufficient. This is because pine rarely regenerates from a cut stump.

Birch scrub will regenerate after cutting, and where eradication is the aim then further management is necessary. This can either take the form of immediate stump treatment using selective herbicides to prevent regeneration, or alternatively summer foliar spraying again using selective herbicides during the following June to October period. If possible regenerating birch should be exposed to grazing , either by livestock or wild deer and rabbits. This puts the plant under stress, and can be sufficient to prevent regeneration without herbicide treatments.

Gorse eradication work is best done in the early winter period, from October to December. Early cleared gorse appears less prone to regeneration, possibly because the winter frosts do more damage to the longer exposed roots.

Gorse coppicing works are often more effective if carried out later in the winter, after the worst frosts have passed. It can be necessary to protect the coppice gorse stumps from rabbit grazing through the erection of temporary rabbit exclosures, either standard specification rabbit fencing or exclosure panels.

Management approach 2 - Grazing

The extensive heathlands that existed throughout the Sandlings area for most of the last thousand years were created and maintained by sheep grazing along with the activities of wild animals such as rabbits and deer. Management using livestock gives a complex mosaic of randomly managed and unmanaged areas on a very small scale. This level of 'micro-management' cannot be reproduced using any currently available machinery, nor is it ever likely to be possible without the use of stock.

As well as producing ideal heathland habitats, livestock grazing prevents or considerably reduces the encroachment of a number of heathland invasive species, particularly birch and rough grasses, reducing the levels of direct intervention required. Grazing management is key to any long term management strategy but it is costly but should be seen as a management tool as well as a product. Although there are incomes from the flock in terms of livestock and meat sales, wool sales, agricultural subsidies and an effective sponsorship scheme, grant aid is still required to support the costs of heathland grazing.

Although it is well known that the Sandlings were extensively grazed through to the 1920's and later, the 70 year gap in grazing has meant that most of the shepherding knowledge has been lost. Added to this is an effect of fragmentation of the heaths and development within the Sandlings - it is no longer possible to walk the flock from heath to heath, or to let stock roam at will across the open commons. Transport and fencing is essential for the reintroduction and management of grazing.

Suffolk Wildlife Trust currently has flocks of Hebridean and Speckle Faced Beulah sheep specifically chosen for their ability to cope with grazing heathland and rough pasture. These are moved around the Sandlings during the spring, summer and early autumn as required to sites managed by Sandlings Group members.

Through the rest of the year they perform a valuable conservation role by grazing flower-rich meadows and low input pasture land on SWT reserves, County Wildlife Sites and Environmentally Sensitive Areas.

Information on sponsoring a Sandlings Sheep

Nationally there have been problems in locating enough stock for conservation grazing. At the same time stock owners, particularly some rare breed owners, have had difficulty securing sufficient pasture. English Nature has founded the Grazing Animals Project to try to address these problems, as well as working to identify best practice, research cost-effectiveness and encourage regional grazing schemes such as the Sandlings flying flock to start up. The Sandlings Project has been involved with GAP from the start, offering the knowledge gained over the last 10 years work and hoping to learn from others.

Management approach 3 - Tree clearance
Large areas of heathland have become colonised by secondary woodland due to the decline of management and particularly since Myxamatosis reduced the rabbit population in the 1950's. Many people can still remember local heaths as wide open spaces with few trees but the clearance of these areas of relatively poor quality woodland remains a sensitive issue.

Scattered trees and small copses are valuable to heathland species and landscapes so it may not be desirable to clear all the trees from a heath. The rarity of heathland however means that a significant amount of this woodland will be removed as part of the restoration process. This is done in consultation with the Forestry Commission and other organisations. The products of tree clearance are used for timber, firewood, fuel for power stations and garden mulch.

Management approach 4- Controlling bracken

Cutting or crushing
Bracken encroachment is a serious problem through the Sandlings. A considerable amount of work has been carried out to clear bracken from the heaths which has shown the best mechanisms for eradication, but there is still a considerable problem to control.

Bracken control mechanisms vary depending on the underlying plant community. Over acid grass heath bracken should be mown or crushed at least once in the year before spraying. Ideally bracken stands should be mown once in the winter then two or three times in the summer. Winter mowing clears the standing dead bracken, exposing the rhizomes to frost and leaving the area unattractive to nesting birds the following Spring, particularly nightjar. Summer mowing in June and July, with another later mow if necessary, puts the plant under considerable stress, increasing the susceptibility to herbicide and reducing the height of the plants making management safer and more straightforward.

In some areas of the country bracken is cut and composted either on its own or mixed with other material. This requires quite a lot of time and effort and has only been trialed on a small scale in the Sandlings but may prove fruitful in the future.

Spraying
Over heather stands it is not reasonable to mow the bracken because of the long term damage this would do to the underlying vegetation. Spraying is carried out without this preparatory work.

Spraying is done using a specific herbicide (Asulox). Application is normally by hand held, tractor/ATV mounted, or helicopter application as appropriate to the site conditions . Correct timing and weather conditions are crucial and set down on the chemical label usage conditions. Spraying is carried out in two phases. The whole stand is treated in the first year, then the stand is retreated in the first or second year following, to kill any rhizome that has survived the original operation.

Clearing deep bracken litter
Where bracken stands have existed for some years there is a build up of bracken leaf litter. This acts as an effective deep mulch, preventing the regeneration of heathland vegetation even after the stands have been treated with herbicide.

These deep litter stands must be cleared before regeneration of the heath can occur. This is done using a forage harvester or pick up mower set to ground level. These machines are both able to lift and collect bracken litter, which can then be removed from site and used in horticulture. The stands are often very deep and the litter too dense to lift in a single operation. This makes it necessary to repeat the operation in subsequent years, allowing frost and weathering to break up the stands.

Re-creating Heathland
One of the major losses of heathland this century has been to agriculture, with over 2000 Ha. of rough sheep grazed heaths and commons being ploughed up for crop production.

One of the key environmental aims for the Sandlings heaths is to re-create heathland on land that is currently used for arable or forestry, aiming to increase the total area of heathland and link existing heaths reducing fragmentation.

The RSPB bought a significant area of arable land (158 Ha.) in 1989 with the aim of reverting the area to heathland. The RSPB together with various academic institutes has carried out a considerable amount of research on re-creation mechanisms. The Sandlings heaths in common with most heathland in the UK are on acidic soils. The heathers in particular will only thrive on an acidic substrate. Central to the RSPB research has been the investigations into pH reduction to revert the arable soils from neutral to acid. The results of the research suggest that the use of elemental sulphur is effective in reducing the soil pH .

The RSPB and National Trust have recently purchased a large area of arable land between Dunwich Heath and Minsmere with the help of the Heritage Lottery Fund and are aiming to re-create a heathland habitat.

Forestry land
Heathland is an important component of the Sandlings Forests at Rendlesham, Tunstall and Dunwich and large areas have been designated as SSSI and SPA to recognise their importance for Woodlark and Nightjar. Pine forests can quickly revert to heathland as they are already quite acidic and heather seed can lie dormant for many years. The Forestry Commission manages its forests for people and wildlife as well as timber and its design plans encompass the needs of all three. Some areas are managed specifically for the heathland habitat, especially where links can be made between existing heaths and the requirements of heathland species are considered in the pattern of tree felling that is followed in timber production.