Positive results from Sand Life – the rare bird Tawny pipit (Anthus campestris) increases again and a negative trend has finally been turned. Since 2013, the number of home ranges in Skåne – the only ones in the country – have increased by 20 percent. The increase has a direct connection with the restorations within the project.

A Tawny pipit (Anthus campestris) at Brösarp in southern Sweden in 2017. Photographer: Patrik Olofsson

The trend at the beginning of Sand Life

Over the past 100 years, the open sandy fields have decreased drastically in the landscape, a consequence of, among other things, the exploitation and planting of species such as Mountain pine and Japanese rose. The development has been devastating to many plant and animal species, including the Tawny pipit. The Tawny pipit was a relatively common bird in Skåne in the early 2000s, and was occurring in sandy habitats in southern Sweden, but it has become increasingly unusual as the open sandy areas have decreased.

According to the Artdatabanken, 1983 was still 210 home ranges in Skåne and 50 in Halland. In 2013, the ornithologist Patrik Olofsson counted the number of home ranges that had dropped to only 33, all in eastern Skåne, the lowest ever figure.

Clear rise at the end of Sand Life

After the restoration actions in Sand Life, with removal of pine trees and Japanese rose and increasing the amount of bare sand, Patrik Olofsson has counted the birds again. The new inventory shows a clear increase of Tawny pipits and 40 home ranges were found in 2017. The inventory shows a large number of birds on and around newly opened, burned or otherwise treated surfaces (eg, Brösarp’s northern slopes, Ravlunda, Drakamöllan, Kumlan-Möllegården). The negative trend has not only stopped; it has also turned!

In August 2016, Sand Life was invited to speak at a workshop on the theme restoration of sandy habitats in LIFE-projects in German Freising outside Munich. Sand Life highlighted the lessons we have learned in the Project so far, both in terms of restoration actions and the importance of communication. The workshop was part of a larger conference SER2016 of “Best Practice of Restoration” with 330 participants from 41 countries.

Other projects the were presented was grassland restoration in the German Sandrasen by Holger Rossling, restoration of coastal dunes in the German part of the project “Life Balt Coast” by Hauke Drews, restoration of xeric calcareous sandy grasslands in the Belgian project “Life Herbages” by Youri Martin and Klaus Kretschmer showed results from the project “Life oak forests”. The presentations are in English and can be downloaded from the website of Sandrasen.

At a mini-workshop in 16^th and 17^th of August the project managers met up at the project sites in the County of Halland to discuss restoration actions and best practice. The regional project leader Magnus Nystrand showed the results after the hard work of removing Rosa rugosa in the sand dunes. The majority of the plant material has been removed and the discussion now is what to do with the remaining tilling’s coming up.

At large areas Pinus mugo has been removed and here we can see the sand reclaiming the site.

At four locations in the sites, the project outdoor museums have been built up to inform the public about the values in the sandy habitats and how to manage them. Here the outdoor museum at Laholmsbuktens sanddynsreservat.