ISN'T CLEETHORPES SITE SUPPOSED TO BE A PRECIOUS SPECIES-RICH NATURE RESERVE?

Brutal or what? The expanse where sea buckthorn once flourished.

COUNTLESS songbirds and other creatures have suddenly been made homeless by a blitz on  sea buckthorn - a native species on Cleethorpes coastal nature reserve.

The purpose of this week's brutal purge by North East Lincolnshire Council has been to allow space and light for marsh orchids, evening primroses and other wild flowers to colonise this part of the resort.

But the effect has also been to destroy precious feeding, roosting and nesting habitat for more than a dozen bird species including whitethroats, stonechats and linnets.

It is likely that extensive populations of rare moths and other unusual insects will also have been destroyed.

Cover has also been lost for some mammal species such as roe deer, hedgehogs and any rabbits that may have considered returning to the reserve.

And to what end?

Buckthorn is such a determined shrub that  what's the betting within five years it  will  have bounced back more plentiful and vigorous  than ever - and the birds will once again sing joyfully?  

The Grimsby News says: Like ivy and dandelions, sea buckthorn is one of these plants that is persecuted  for being too successful. Around Britain’s coastline, it is far from common, but in Cleethorpes it is rampant. Indeed, it is something of a local speciality which, like the adjacent saltmarsh, does its precious bit in capturing carbon from the atmosphere. It is true that its tenacity tends to crowd out wild flowers and other plants, but NELC has been far too zealous in its efforts to part-eliminate buckthorn from Cleethorpes foreshore. The authority seems to have totally disregarded the almost entirely negative impact its purge will also have on insects and songbirds for which the plant has always provided both a nesting habitat and a vital migration corridor.                                                         

Made homeless? A male stonechat aloft a buckthorn bush earlier this month