Tayside Biodiversity Partnership Local Action Plan

Sand Dunes

OPPORTUNITIES AND CURRENT ACTION

Management plans for all designated sites to be kept current.

Broughty Ferry LNR Management Plan is on a five year cycle.

Site Condition Monitoring programme being carried out by SNH.

SNH also monitors all SSSI notified interests on a 6-yearly basis. This could be supplemented in between by other work (potentially by others).

Conservation Group involving MoD at Barry Links (large proportion of Tayside’s sand dune resource).

Tay Estuary Forum and overall plan for Integrated Coastal Zone Management.

Case Study
Tern Project, Barry Buddon

During the 1950s Barry Buddon was home to five different species of tern consisting in total several
thousand breeding pairs. Today no terns breed on the site. The decline in the breeding population may
have been the result of habitat disturbance and the subsequent reduction in suitable nest sites. Such a
decline in tern numbers probably began before the Ministry of Defence increased activity on the site
over a decade ago. However, the area’s increased usage has led to a public access restriction to
Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons, perhaps making it once more suitable for terns.

Members of the Tayside Biodiversity Partnership are working together to encourage the terns back to this important site. Clay bird ‘decoys’ have been made, mostly using Carse of Gowrie clay, and some have been fired in the Dundee College pottery kilns. The local community, including local schoolchildren, have helped paint the models in readiness for siting near the lighthouse. Shelters and ‘tern calling-tapes’ may also be used to further attract the terns to breed on the site. It is hoped local volunteers will keep the site suitable for terns and long term planning, together with site monitoring, will assess the various management approaches used.

OBJECTIVES & TARGETS

Objectives		Targets
1	Protect the existing sand dune resource in Tayside from further losses to anthropogenic factors, allowing for natural processes and replacing deterioration with positive conservation.	No net loss in area or reduction of quality of habitat beyond 2005.
2	Where conditions allow manage the coast in sympathy with natural processes, allowing soft-sediment coasts to function as natural coastal defences.	Allow the natural functioning of the coast where possible.
3	Where conditions allow attempt to restore areas of sand dune lost to forestry, agriculture or other human uses.	Restore degraded sand dunes, where realistic, by 2010.
4	Continue determining in detail the area, extent and condition of sand dune habitats in Tayside.	Complete survey of all sand dune habitat by 2003.
5	Maintain and protect the quality and integrity of designated sites. Ensure that the current set of management plans is completed and that monitoring of sites goes ahead. Seek to apply principles of management plans to all sand dune habitats in the region.	Keep up-to-date management plans for all designated areas.
6	Set up a five-year programme to raise awareness of coastal biodiversity, its importance, the fragility of the coast and the need for its conservation in Tayside. Include sand dunes in this programme.	Set up a public awareness programme by 2002. Run public awareness programme until 2007.

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