De Nauwe korfslak en natuurbeheer

Vertigo angustior and nature management: the ecology of mollusks protected under the Habitat Directive has received little attention in The Netherlands. Boesveld et al. (2011) made a good start in the last issue of De Levende Natuur (May 2011: 114-119). However, their conclusion that we should focus on maintaining all large subpopulations of for example Vertigo angustior in coastal dune areas does not take into account the rapid succession in these dunes. Large scale restoration projects are necessary to maintain and restore the open dune habitats, also strictly protected under the Habitat Directive. Without these large scale restoration Vertigo angustior among other species and habitats will decline severely due to ongoing forest encroachment and acidification. The populations of Vertigo angustior are large and wide spread enough in the calcareous Dutch dunes to withstand large scale restoration measures.