Being among 40-50 other people on Thursday evening this week, I attended the Campaign to Protect Rural England’s Runnymede, Surrey Heath, and Woking branch’s joint meeting on ‘The future of the Thames Basin heathlands’.

The two keynote speakers were Rob McGibbon of the Surrey Heathland Project, and Jonathan Gasson of Defence Estates, an agency of the Ministry of Defence.

Over 50% of the Thames Basin Heathland is owned by the MOD, which they use for a variety of armed services training purposes. The good thing is that the MOD need training land that’s not overgrown with scrub or has dense tree cover, so there’s a happy meeting of similar requirements to maintain and improve Surrey heathland.

Rob McGibbon, a wonderfully energetic and passionate conservationist, described the work being done to protect this habitat, saying:

• heathland is reasonably easy to restore, but is continually in need of resources to do so
• nitrogen emitted from motor vehicles acts as a fertilizer for scrub and trees, and so if left unchecked destroys heathland
• using grazing animals, such as cattle, goats, and ponies keeps down purple moor-grass, letting heather and gorse flourish

 

Interestingly, Rob suggested that local energy generation could be sustained by the wood chip of the felled pine and birch trees, as there’s so much work to do. Now, there’s something that I need to find out more about. Sounds like a really good idea.

You may have noticed the cattle grazing on Hangmoor and Folly Bog alongside Red Road. They’re due to arrive again shortly I gather. The words on the picture of a sign close by Folly Bog says,

“Folly Bog and Hangmoor are extremely important for nature conservation – they are part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest [SSSI], a Special Area of Conservation [SAC], and a Special Protection Area for birds [SPA].”

“Since 1998, the Ministry of Defence Conservation Group has been carrying out a project to restore this bog. Following on from this and to improve the habitats further, the MOD has allocated funds to enable cattle to graze to reduce the growth of purple moor-grass and encourage a greater even variety of plants and animals.”

How you can help conserve the heathland

I’m keenly interested in conservation of our local heathland habitat. As readers will know, I’m a conservation volunteer with the Park Rangers at Lightwater Country Park during the winter, helping them remove invasive Pine trees and scrub.

You can be too. Conservation work begins in mid-October and generally ends some time in early March.  To find out what’s involved, speak to the Rangers at the Rangers office in the Country Park. Either of the Rangers, Gordon Voller or Peter Maynard will be pleased to tell you more, or call them on 01276 479582.