Strategy Area Description

Grasslands are habitats dominated by a mix of grass, and herb, species. They vary (in terms of species complement and structure) according to the soil type upon which they grow and the wider ecological and climatic conditions they experience through their development. Some grasslands are grazed by livestock, some are cropped (for example for hay) and some are 'artificial', and are created for purely functional reasons, for example sports pitches.

One of the major land uses in the strategy area (built-up areas excepted) is for 'improved grassland', in one form or another. This category of habitat covers a large proportion of the total 'non-urban' land area, probably more than the summed total of all 'semi-natural habitats'.

Such 'grassland' includes agricultural grasslands (for example improved pastures and some arable land, which is a monoculture of grasses such as cereals) and large areas of intensively managed, 'urban grassland' (these occur around urban areas, along transport corridors, as sports pitches and areas of urban greenspace).

Lowland meadows and pasture

Species-rich lowland neutral grassland is floristically important for grasses and herbs. Typically, local examples contain grasses such as crested dog's-tail, meadow foxtail, common bent, creeping fescue, sweet vernal grass, and herbs such as black knapweed, bird's foot-trefoil, yellow rattle, sorrel, greater burnet, cowslip and common spotted orchid.

This habitat is also important for its associated invertebrate fauna; for example the common grassland butterflies, such as small and large skipper, common blue, meadow brown and ringlet. Such unimproved 'wild flower meadow' was traditionally managed for hay production.

This is a habitat that has declined dramatically, in area and qualitatively, over the last 70 years or so. The largest area of such habitat in the strategy area is located in Gateshead but all of the local authority areas hold good examples - such as South Hylton Pasture SSSI (City of Sunderland), the lower Derwent Meadows SSSI (Gateshead) and Boldon Pastures SSSI (South Tyneside).

Limestone grassland

Along its eastern and part of its southern boundary, in both South Tyneside and the City of Sunderland, the strategy area contains a nationally important habitat, magnesian limestone (calcareous) grassland. Examples are often found on unproductive clifftops, steep escarpments and on 'worked out' quarry floors.

These grasslands tend to have a relatively short sward and grow on dry, nutrient poor, strongly alkaline, often shallow, soils. They support a unique flora that includes blue moor-grass, meadow oat-grass, upright brome, quaking grass and herbs such as cowslip, wild thyme, lady's bedstraw, salad burnet, rock rose (on shallow soils or exposed limestone), small scabious, fairy flax and occasionally perennial flax, as well as bee, pyramidal and fragrant orchids. It plays host to an important assemblage of invertebrates.

Some of the best examples are located to the north west of Sunderland and along the coastal strip of South Tyneside, for example Harton Down Hill. Other good sites occur to the south and west of Sunderland, for example Houghton Hill and Cut, Penshaw Hill and Tunstall Hills.

A valuable commercial resource, the quarrying of limestone in South Tyneside and Sunderland over decades has been responsible for impacting upon, and creating, magnesian limestone grassland sites. Such quarries can be found in the north at Marsden (South Tyneside), south and west through the City of Sunderland, and from there inland to Houghton and Hetton. This industry has left a legacy that is now an important biodiversity resource - wildlife-rich old quarry sites, for example Fulwell Quarry and Marsden Old Quarry, in Sunderland and South Tyneside respectively.

Flushed grassland

This is usually damp lowland neutral grassland with, often, spring-fed flushes. The swards of these are frequently rich in sedge species and moisture-loving herbs, such as cuckoo flower and northern marsh orchid, a good example is Hagg Hill Pasture in Gateshead.

Acid grassland

Acid grasslands occur on dry, free-draining, nutrient poor substrate with acid conditions; they often overlie beds of sand and gravel. Representative plants include sheep's fescue, common bent, wavy-hair-grass, sheep's sorrel, heath bedstraw and tormentil. Good examples include Owlet Hill in the Derwent Walk Country Park, Image Hill near Blaydon and the riverside grasslands at Ryton Willows, all in Gateshead. There is a smaller amount of this habitat in the City of Sunderland, for example at Elemore Golf Course.

Lowland heathland

This dwarf shrub habitat, growing at altitudes below 300 metres above sea level, is rare in the strategy area. Dominated by ericaceous plants, usually common heather, (bilberry may also be present), it is found on nutrient-poor acidic substrates, free-draining sandy areas and, sometimes, on damp peaty soils - occasionally on pit spoil (for example at Whitehills in Gateshead). Acid-loving herbs, such as heath bedstraw and tormentil, characterise the sward.

Gateshead has the majority of what is a relatively limited strategy-wide resource, with examples at Burdon Moor, Ousborough Woods and Tanfield Railway Sidings - all sites in the Team valley. This habitat occurs in a limited fashion, along some old railway lines such as on the Bowes Railway Path above the Team valley, and also in Sunderland, at the Eppleton Colliery Railway.

This habitat can also be found, where appropriate substrates occur, within some of the larger planted ancient woodland sites (PAWS) in the Derwent valley, for example in parts of Chopwell Woods and the Gibside Estate. In these instances, heathland occurs in a time-limited fashion, between the clear-fell and scrub re-growth stages of the harvesting cycle, before the habitat is shaded out by the re-stocked timber crop.