{"id":764,"date":"2009-09-07T19:09:46","date_gmt":"2009-09-07T18:09:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/?p=764"},"modified":"2009-09-07T19:09:46","modified_gmt":"2009-09-07T18:09:46","slug":"crushing-bracken-using-horse-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/2009\/09\/crushing-bracken-using-horse-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Crushing bracken using horse power"},"content":{"rendered":"

Conservation experts will be using horsepower to help control the growth of bracken around historical sites in the Yorkshire Dales National Park<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Bracken\"<\/a>
Bracken<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A special horse-drawn roller has been brought in to crush the plant around the exceptionally well preserved and extensive earthworks of a large group of cultivation terraces dating from pre-Roman times near Threshfield.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s proving to be a success, according to Robert White, Senior Conservation Archaeologist with the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (YDNPA).<\/p>\n

He said it was the first time the machinery had been used on archaeological sites in the National Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe root systems of bracken are very extensive and can cause very considerable damage to archaeological sites,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically, the theory is that repeatedly crushing and breaking the stems weakens the plant and eventually kills it.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn some small sites we have used volunteers to physically bash the bracken but horse drawn rolling is a more environmentally sustainable form of control for larger areas.<\/p>\n

It has to be done under the right ground conditions and it is important to get the weight of the roller right \u2013 too heavy a roller can cause damage to buried archaeological features, too light a roller doesn\u2019t crush the bracken sufficiently.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe practice was sometimes used in the past although there were other ways of managing bracken<\/a> \u2013 for example, it was cut for animal bedding and it was burned to create potash for soap making.<\/p>\n

Grazing by cattle also helped keep bracken under control but sheep are too light to have much of an impact on the plant.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn modern times it has been controlled using a particular herbicide that is now being withdrawn throughout Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

More information.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here are some sources of further information<\/p>\n

British horse loggers <\/a><\/p>\n

Mechanical bracken bashing using heavy horses<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bracken safety for horses<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Conservation experts will be using horsepower to help control the growth of bracken around historical sites in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. A special horse-drawn roller has been brought in to crush the plant around the exceptionally well preserved and extensive earthworks of a large group of cultivation terraces dating from pre-Roman times near Threshfield. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[1061,1063,1067,1072,1065,1078,1062,190,1068,1077,1073,1069,1079,1070,1064,1071,1066,185,182,181],"class_list":["post-764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-plants","tag-animal-bedding","tag-archaeological-features","tag-archaeological-sites","tag-archaeologist","tag-bracken","tag-british-horse","tag-conservation-experts","tag-dales-national-park","tag-earthworks","tag-heavy-horses","tag-herbicide","tag-horse-power","tag-loggers","tag-potash","tag-power-conservation","tag-roman-times","tag-root-systems","tag-yorkshire-dales","tag-yorkshire-dales-national-park","tag-yorkshire-dales-national-park-authority","entry"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/author\/admin-2\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=764"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":767,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764\/revisions\/767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}