Glossary

Glossary of Terms


Amenity grassland: Areas of grassland managed for recreational and amenity purposes (e.g. playing fields, parks etc.)

Barrier schemes: The construction of tidal defence barriers in estuaries to protect industry and housing from tidal flooding (e.g. Thames Barrier scheme, Colne Barrier scheme). Also the construction of off-shore barriers to reduce the erosional effects of on-shore wave action.

Beach recharge: The process of tipping or spraying sands and gravels obtained from dredging operations onto beaches to supplement the natural deposition process that created the original beach.

Bioaccumulation: The process of accumulation of biomass (or the volume of organic material) within an ecosystem.

Biocides: Chemicals including herbicides, insecticides etc. that are designed to attack and eliminate any biological living organism.

Borrow-dykes: The broad ditch behind the sea wall, created when the soil is 'borrowed' or dug out to create the wall itself. Often brackish, these water bodies cover a significant area in the county.

Broadleaf woodlands: Woods composed of mainly native deciduous species.

Coppicing: The practice of cropping timber by cutting the young stems of the tree low down on a regular basis (every 8-20 years, depending on species) for use as material for various products. A common practice throughout the county before the wars, it is rarely done today for commercial reasons but has good conservation benefits for woodland plants and animals.

Ecosystem: The system of connections between different organisms, the atmosphere they live in, the substrate they exist on and their interrelationship with other organisms. Applicable at a range of scales, ecosystems can vary from the global scale down to micro-ecosystems which occur in highly specialised conditions. A common example given is the tropical rainforests.

Eutrophication: The process of artificial enrichment of water bodies, usually by pollutants or agricultural fertiliser run-off, which leads to over activation of the water-dwelling bacteria and microscopic life which in turn decreases oxygen levels in the water and causes many species of plants and animals to be lost from the water body.

Fauna: All animal life (but usually considered to exclude viruses).

Flora: All plants (including mosses and liverworts).

Green lanes: Old trackways open as public rights of way, that were the old local road system for people and horses before the widespread adoption of metalled roads. Many are bridleways, footpaths and roads used as public paths (RUPPS).

Heathland: Areas of grassland and scrub on dry acid soils dominated by heathers, gorses and other acid-soil tolerant plants, many of which are highly specialised to cope with the conditions.

Managed retreat (or coastal realignment): The practice of allowing drained marshes that were once covered by the sea to flood again and be recolonised by saltmarsh vegetation.

Monoculture cropping: The practice of maintaining the same crop type on a piece of land for a number of years in succession. The natural exhaustion of the land that would occur under such a management regime is avoided by supplementary inputs of fertilisers, lime, organic manure and control of pests by modern biocides.

Pollarding: A similar practice to that of coppicing but the trees are cut 6-10 feet above the ground to allow grazing to take place under the trees.

Ramsar sites: Sites covered by the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, signed in Ramsar, Iran.

Saltings: Intertidal mud flats colonised and stabilised by salt water tolerant vegetation.

Set-aside: Agricultural land taken out of production and put over to non-agricultural production use under the MAFF arable subsidy scheme.

SINCs (Sites of Importance to Nature Conservation): Sites that have been identified as being of importance in the county or local context, these sites carry no statutory protection other than that given them by their inclusion in the local plan.

Watercourses: Any channel carrying flowing water.

Wet woods: Woodland, usually comprising alder and willow, naturally occurring in marshy conditions (also referred to as carr woodland).

Wildlife corridors: The principle of connections between wildlife habitats. Closely related to the theory of Island ecosystems, wildlife corridors aim to provide a corridor for migration of all species between suitable habitat areas.