The habitat within the study area although too small to be considered of national or regional importance is nevertheless of great local importance.  Semi-natural broadleaved woodland is scarce in the area – good quality largely native semi-natural woodland with well-developed canopy and stand dynamics, structural diversity and associated field layer is scarcer yet.  Although likely secondary in origin, the ash-alder woodland occurring on the island, bears many of the characteristics of wildwood with good mixed age-structure from tall, mature veterans through to wispy saplings; much vertical and horizontal layering and chaotic and contorted growth; mixed shade regimes and both standing and prone dead and dying wood.  The latter features combined with the lack of management and regular damage wrought by catastrophic winter flooding provide multiple niches for both flora and fauna to exploit.  Natural regeneration of seedlings and saplings is occurring, indicating the presence of healthy seed parents.  Much of this new growth is hard browsed by deer (e.g. NT07604 07001) but there is enough younger, pole-stage stems throughout the stand to exploit any gaps that may open in the canopy.  Even in the nightmare scenario of losing all the big ash trees to ash die-back, continued canopy cover should be ensured by species such as alder, sycamore, birch and rowan.

Invasive non-native species are not, as yet, a threat.  Beech is probably the biggest threat and, ideally, should be controlled.[1]  Sycamore, although not native is long naturalised and has no negative impacts on ash-elm and ash-alder woods.  Indeed, in the light of both ash die-back and Dutch elm disease, it may well prove a godsend as it helps fill the niche opened up by the loss of ash and elm to these diseases.  There are some other non-natives throughout the stand including the garden escapees gooseberry and pink purslane.  The former could prove a problem and is best cleared; the latter may look unsightly but is unlikely to have any detrimental impacts on the native flora.

Channel erosion, a phenomenon so typical of so much of our watercourses throughout the country, is not a serious issue within the study area.  There is one eroded bank on a bend of the river immediately at the upstream limit of the study area (NT07564 07180)

On the whole then, the habitat within the study area can be considered to be of high local conservation value and provided stock continue to be excluded and both deer pressure and non-native plant species are kept in check then the future of the habitat looks secure.  Although very small in extent, parts of the island provide a type example of more natural and dynamic habitats that were once much more widespread but have now been largely lost to land improvement.  The area contrasts sharply with the open, denuded and eroded burns so typical of so much of the country, especially in the uplands, and provides an example of what can be achieved when river systems are allowed the space to breathe a little and not be constricted by the encroachment of agriculture, forestry and other land uses.  The value of the wider study area is also locally high as part of a network providing habitat connectivity within the River Annan corridor.

[1] Note: bigger specimens can be ring-barked instead of felling. As well as controlling the spread of the beech, ring barking would also provide valuable dead standing wood.