EVERY year at just about this time I always take a visit out to the wetland nature reserves of Puxton Marsh, Blake Marsh and Redstone Marsh, as around now the marsh flora is at its most visible.

The early spring flowers are just able to be picked out as the summer flowers and grasses have yet to reach their full height making spotting the smaller plants impossible, as well as making moving across the wetlands extremely difficult. At Puxton my annual visit has always revolved around an annual count of the number of orchids the site has supported. When Wyre Forest District Council first took on the site some ten years ago, there were just three orchids remaining.

Over the years I have haply been able to watch this count steadily rise up to just over 100. Then came the big summer flood of the year before last, which covered the reserve in a carpet of river silt. With the result that last year there were no orchids at all! This was very alarming.

However, this year,things picked up a bit with 72 orchids seen. Still not as good as it was but at least there is still hope. The site did not feel as wet as in previous years as my orchid count would make full use of my waders whilst this year I would have easily got away with a pair of wellies. This could be quite alarming but the Environment Agency is in the midst of a detail study of the site’s hydrology, so if there is an issue relating to the water table this will be picked up. The amount of local rainfall really affects the water levels on the marsh so it could just be it hadn’t rained as much as previous years around the time of the survey.

Blake Marsh has also has orchids and the numbers of these have not fluctuated much over the years. The real management challenge on this site is the reduction of the dominance of a plant known as greater willowherb. Whist this plant is a native and should be part of the marsh’s ecology, it was starting to dominate and shade out a lot of the wetland’s smaller wild flowers. The light annual graze is all that’s been needed to break this up a bit and now the willowherb is more interspersed with meadowsweet and loosestrife. The two pieces of reclaimed sports pitch are also worth a look as they were both brought into ecological management at the same time but one was managed as a meadow and cut for hay and one as a pasture and grazed.

Redstone Marsh had, when I first started with the ranger service, an ecological report that said it was nearly totally destroyed through the encroachment and domination of the non-native plant Himalayan balsam. Now this plant is still present but is in no shape a threat. These day the site’s greatest threat comes from bramble. This is a little worrying as it suggests the site is drying out, a condition there is no cure for. The bramble was cut this spring and it will be interesting to see whether this has the effect of reducing its dominance.

It appears things are still improving and this is a heart-warming thought as this means, at least in these remaining wildlife havens, our wildlife is managing to survive and in some cases thrive for our future generations to enjoy.