Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust’s aims to save a critically endangered plant, Scarce Tufted-sedge Carex cespitosa, from extinction in the UK have taken a significant step forward with assisted colonisation at four new sites in Hertfordshire.

The plant was previously found on just one site in Hertfordshire within the whole of the UK, persisting in a privately-owned county Local Wildlife Site. Both the owners and the Trust realised a duty to ensure the plant’s survival and a conservation plan for its recovery was put into action. This conservation work has been funded by Natural England’s Species Recovery Programme, which aims to halt and reverse declines on populations of our most threatened species.

Seeds were collected from plants at the original site and germinated at a specialist nursery for wetland plants in the north of England, where, over the course of 20 months, they were grown on to become viable for planting out. Simultaneously, sites across the county were surveyed for their potential suitability to host new populations of the plant, and four sites were subsequently identified – the Trust’s Fir & Pond Woods Nature Reserve, near Potters Bar, Tarmac-owned Panshanger Park, near Welwyn Garden City, Silvermead, in the Lee Valley Regional Park, and the Gaddesden Estate, near Hemel Hempstead. Habitat preparation, including excavation, then took place at each of these and in the last few weeks, over 900 young Scarce Tufted-sedge plants have been planted into the ground with the support of our partners, and site managers at Panshanger Park, Maydencroft, as well as the help of almost 40 volunteers who will go on to help us monitor the success of this scheme.

Chloë Edwards, Director of Nature Recovery at Herts and Middlesex Trust, explains why bringing plants back from the brink of extinction is so important:

“Over time, many of the wonderful wet and squelchy areas across our landscapes in Hertfordshire, where wetland plants such as Scarce Tufted-sedge would have once thrived, have been lost. The decline of the Scarce Tufted-sedge is indicative of a much broader loss of wetland habitats and their associated benefits, whether it be the home they provide to many other species, the resilience they provide to us during times of drought and flood, or their ability to lock up carbon.  As an incredibly rare species, the Scarce Tufted-sedge is an important plant in its own right and targeted schemes such as this help us to learn what we must do in order to protect plant diversity, but they also enable us to start to restore the ecological integrity of our wetland environments.”.

“Taking steps to establish four new Scarce Tufted-sedge populations in Hertfordshire, is a fantastic step towards ensuring this species isn’t vulnerable to extinction, and our learnings will hopefully help shape the return of this species to more locations both within and beyond our county boundaries in future. Importantly, this scheme clearly demonstrates that with specialist expertise, investment and planning (plus the help of a dedicated bunch of volunteers) we can take tangible, targeted action to help reverse nature’s decline and that provides us all with hope for the future.”

Consultant Ecologist, Astrid Biddle says,

“With our care of the special and rare plants supported in habitats like these, we seek to bring an appreciation of their value, not only as the green backdrop for our other endangered species, or as keystones upon which these species depend, but as extraordinary and complex marvels in their own right.

“It’s part of our responsibility to future generations, so that they will be able to experience the full breadth of UK biodiversity. It’s also a continuing part of the Trust’s strategy to restore 30% of land for nature by 2030.”

According to the State of Nature 2023 report, one in six species is at risk of being lost in Great Britain, but nature recovery projects like this one can reverse the steep decline in our natural world. For more information about Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust and the conservation work the charity is undertaking, visit our news pages.