2.1.2 Local Ecosystem - Case Study

📍 Location: Sutton Park, Birmingham

• Sutton Park is a 2,400 acre National Nature Reserve located 6 miles north of the city centre of Birmingham.
• It's a National Nature Reserve.

Sutton Park

Human Uses for Woodland

• Recreation: For example, for walks.
• Conservation: To protect ecosystems.
• Resource: Wood is used for fuel (firewood) or as timber for buildings.

Sutton Park's Food Web

• Sutton Park has a complex food web composed of thousands of species, as the result of its careful management.
  • A wide variety of native tree species that include oak and ash.
  • A shrub layer consisting of hazel and holly, along with grasses, brambles, fern, and bracken.
  • Many primary consumers, including insects, small mammals, grazing cows, and 38 species of bird.
  • Secondary consumers such as owls, adders, and foxes.
  • Over 10 lakes and ponds providing important habitats for numerous species of fauna (animals) and flora (plants).

Sutton Park's Food Web

Sustainable Management

• Restoration Efforts:
  • In 1989, work began to restore the heathlands. Large areas of birch trees and gorse were cleared from areas that should be open heathland. This work continues today. Low-intensity grazing will help to preserve the health of the heathland into the future.
• Tourist Management Strategies:
  • Providing car parks, toilets, park rangers, and maintaining footpaths to manage recreation.
  • Providing three easy-access car parks for people with disabilities.
  • Preserving ancient earthworks and buildings.
• Other Sustainable Management Strategies:
  • Allowing old trees to die and collapse naturally (unless they're dangerous).
  • Encouraging grazing (there's a herd of 50 cows) to maintain the grassland.
  • Maintaining ponds & lakes to prevent them silting up.
  • Preserving the herd of fallow deer.
  • Dead wood is generally left when it falls in the forest, as it provides a valuable habitat.
  • Some grassy areas are left uncut to encourage wildlife like butterflies.

Threats to the Ecosystem

Human Impact:

• Due to human management and tourism, lots of the natural woodland & heathland was destroyed for park land.
• Changes to grazing in Sutton Park have contributed to invasion by birch, gorse, and bracken. Most of the areas covered in birch trees were open heathland up until 1976.
• Lack of grazing led to birch seedlings becoming established and coverage of large areas of heathland with woodland.