HABBERLEY Valley has been the scene of a lot of conservation work over the last couple of years.

However, judging the success of such projects can take some time for the natural communities to recover and begin to improve.

One example of this is the work that has been carried out on bracken over the past decade. In 1994, when the site was first taken over by Wyre Forest District Council, it was plagued by bracken.

While this plant is a native and has its place in the natural habitats of Habberley Valley due to its prolific method of propagation through underground rhizomes, it had taken over nearly all of the other woodland flora.

In 1996, the first attempts of controlling the plant were initiated and every year since then work has still had to be carried out to control the bracken.

The good news is that these days the plant is still present but the annual management has kept it to the odd clump and scattered individuals.

This is all very well but what actual benefit has this work had to the ground flora that the work was initiated to improve?

Well, no great influx of new and marvellous species of wild flowers has appeared, however, the existing flora of nationally recognised acid grassland and lowland heathland have flourished. The bilberry communities of the heath have expanded around 20 per cent and continue to do so.

More recent work has revolved around the felling of relatively young silver birch trees.

As the work is still relatively new and it is hard to be 100 per cent positive on the levels of success, it will need a fair amount of follow-up work to produce the best results.

The area where the work first started looks great. Large quantities of new and vibrant wavy hair grass communities with heath bedstraw and sheep's sorrel have replaced the birch scrub. Small quantities of western gorse have also started to appear.

It would seem that seeds have remained dormant in the soil from the time when this area was once a vibrant lowland heath.

It is far too early to tell the results of this winter's felling but it would seem that most of the areas are following the same course of succession. However, one area is becoming over bramble dominated.

This is due to too high a nutrient level in the soil caused by many years of leaf litter from the previous trees. There are still many challenges ahead for Habberley Valley.