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| Doug
harnesses horsepower for Trust’s New Forest commons |
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Milky
Down Misbehaving – ‘Bee’ for short – is the latest recruit to join
the National Trust team in the New Forest.
Bee is a seven year
old chestnut mare used by project officer Doug England, who is
part of the team that looks after the National Trust commons in
the Forest. Walkers and riders, used to finding Doug behind the
wheel of his truck, will soon be seeing him on horseback, as he
checks the health of the 1600 hectares (4000 acres) owned and managed
by the Trust.
“Using a horse to do the job is an idea that’s been
brewing for some time,” said Doug. “We always seek to reduce our
carbon emissions and up to now I have had to use a four-wheel drive
vehicle when I’m out and about organising contractors, monitoring
the wildlife and the general health of our commons, which we are
managing so that open heathland and scrub regenerates. A lot of
people use these commons for recreation and they’ll know that some
of the terrain is hard to reach. So it made sense to do the work
on horseback,” said Doug, who emphasised that Bee was a working
horse.
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Factfile
The National Trust is
the second largest landowner in the New Forest, with 2400 hectares
on five different sites on the western and eastern edges.
The
properties within the established New Forest boundary are Hale
Purlieu, Bramshaw Commons, Rockford, Ibsley and Hightown Commons.
The recently acquired Foxbury Plantation, Copythorne, is just
outside this boundary, but within the National Park. All five
areas support the New Forest’s historic method of farming, known
as ‘commoning’ and all are being managed to regenerate habitat
in a sustainable environment.
The Forest owes its shape, wildlife
and flora to commoning where the landscape is sculpted by grazing
animals. Management, whether by the Forestry Commission who care
for the 20,000 hectares of Crown lands, or by the National Trust,
can be complicated by the need to balance recreational use (horse
riding, cycling, dog-walking and rambling) with the rights of
the commoners and protection of the environment. |
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“I’m
not some jolly range rider, like a character out of a cowboy film,”
he said. “It took time to find a horse suitable for this sort of
work, but now it means I can get to places that are impossible to
reach by vehicle and take a long time on foot. Working with Bee means
that I’ll get the job done more effectively, cause less damage to
the landscape and less disruption to the birds and animals that live
on our commons.
“We have to spend money on equipment for the restoration work and it made a lot
of sense to buy a horse – Bee is a perfect piece of conservation machinery.
“The New Forest is one of our most precious assets with a wonderful diversity
of wildlife. It is our job to look after it in a way that will ensure that it
survives and thrives so that everyone who comes here to enjoy it can reconnect
with the natural world as it should be,” he said.. |
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