Naddle Low Forest is a birch/oak/ash/hazel wood situated on steep, rocky, NW-E facing slopes 200-400m a.s.l. above Haweswater Reservoir, in the eastern part of the English Lake District. In 1986 a 36 hectare block in the eastern part of the wood was fenced into 12 compartments, for the purposes of a Nature Conservancy Council/Macaulay Land Use Research Institute study to examine the effects of sheep-grazing on the vegetation of upland woods. Sheep grazing varies in intensity (low, medium or heavy) and season (summer or winter) between the 12 compartments. Scattered around the wood are also 6 small plots fenced off to completely eliminate grazing. The results of the NCC/MLURI study in the period 1986-1989 have been reported (Mitchell, 1991). The grazing system set up in 1986 will continue until 1994, by when it is hoped that relationships between grazing intensity/season and vegetation will be more apparent. Frequency and abundance of bryophytes were recorded in the NCC/MLURI study, but with no indication of the species present, so in October 1986 changes in the species composition of the bryophyte flora were monitored. After a visit to the wood in October 1988, changes found when comparing the 1986 and 1988 results were reported. The wood was revisited in January 1992 and the results of this visit are reported here.
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