Beech Seedlings

Here is a little beech seedling hiding away on the river bank. The main non- native on the main river Lyon down here is sycamore, with beech not obviously apparent to any great extent. However, it looks like they may be getting a start here now as well. This is important because they can easily come to dominate and shade out the natural vegetation in the riparian zone, leading to loss of biodiversity and increasing the risk of erosion.