Grazing • Access & amenity • Pollution • Coastal defence maintenance • Alternative uses

Grazing

Grazing probably has a longer history of influence on saltmarsh in the UK than enclosure. Its significance for the development of nature conservation interest is very important, as it modifies the vegetation and results in a major shift in the balance of flora and fauna. By comparison, other uses of the marsh tend to have a less obvious effect.

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Grazing occurs extensively on marshes in Britain, especially in the west and north, and has a major effect on the structure and species composition of a marsh (e.g. through the grazing process itself and also soil compaction by grazing animals). The resulting nature conservation interest is markedly different between those areas that traditionally have been ungrazed, or subject to a low level grazing regime, and those which are heavily grazed. In general, as grazing intensity increases, there is a loss of structural diversity as the standing crop is removed. At the same time, grazing sensitive species are removed from the sward, reducing species diversity. As the sward becomes shorter and dominated by grazing sensitive species, such as small grasses (e.g. saltmarsh grass and sheep's fescue), it is increasingly favoured by grazing ducks and geese. Therefore, the loss of structural diversity also adversely affects the saltmarsh invertebrate and breeding bird populations.

Several levels of grazing can be defined, as follows:

These definitions and the grazing levels proposed were originally developed for artificial saltmarshes in the Wadden Sea (Dijkema and Wolff, 1983); as such they lie at the upper range of the levels considered to be appropriate for nature conservation, bearing in mind the historical context in which this interest is judged.