Management of Roadside Vegetation: The Long-Term Effects of Cutting

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Abstract
(1) An experimental comparison of the effects of eleven cutting treatments on roadside vegetation was made at two sites in Cambridgeshire over a period of 18 years. The treatments were combinations of cutting date, cutting frequency (0, 1, 2, or 5 times per annum) cutting machine (haymower, flail mower or rotary mower) and leaving or removing cuttings. (2) Vascular plant species-richness of the vegetation was unaffected by altering the date of a single cut from June to July or by cutting with different types of machine. It was lowest in the uncut plots and highest in plots cut twice per annum. (3) Increased cutting frequency significantly decreased the frequency of ten mainly coarse growing species, including Elymus repens, Arrhenatherum elatius and Anthriscus sylvestris. Eleven finer species (mostly grasses) increased in frequency and two others (Ranunculus repens and Plantago lanceolata) reached a maximum at two cuts per annum. (4) Removing cuttings led to an increased in plant species-richness, mainly due to an increase in herbs. Removing cuttings led to a decrease in extractable potassium in the soil but most other soil nutrients, including total and available nitrogen, were unaffected. It is suggested that the increase in species-richness was not due to reduced levels of soil nutrients, but as probably associated with the disturbance and scarification which accompanied the removal of cuttings by hand raking, and with the alleviation of the smothering effect caused by leaving cut vegetation on the verges. (5) The effects of the treatments on species-richness and the frequencies of individual species were very similar at both sites.