Description
The Great Green Bush Cricket is considered a key species in European grassland ecosystems and lives in trees and on grassland. They feed on both insects and plants. A number were translocated to Shackledell, making this the only site in Hertfordshire where these can be seen and heard.
- The Great Green Bush Cricket requires bare earth or short turf for egg laying and the interface between scrub and rank grassland for foraging. Work continues to gradually push back the encroaching scrub until it forms a sinuous fringe around the edge of the original meadow area of 3-5m in width. This is augmented with a regular and formalised cutting and clearing regime for the grassland area.
- A central flower-rich area has been created by cutting and clearing twice a year, in July and September, together with a thick rough grassland fringe to the border scrub which is cut on rotation every three years.
- There has been an additional area added by the hedge which is managed in a similar manner.
- The grassland should be surveyed every 5 years to establish whether the number of wildflower species has increased.
Nutrients need to be reduced over the years to create a species-rich grassland from an amenity grassland. This is done by cutting the grass and collecting cuttings and can take 5 - 10 years to see a significant increase in the number of wildflower species and their abundance. This can be helped by sowing from time to time native, UK grown wildflower seeds at the right time of year.