Cuts to the Grassland in Epping Forest

Apart from the excessively dry period during spring and summer, causing our grasslands (and lawns?) to become desert-parched - and notwithstanding the fires that are traditionally beginning to break out on the Flats and elsewhere - some of our grasslands have been severely depleted by those employed to manage them.

Well - you know who I mean; grass-cutting teams have been out in Wanstead Park, and apparently - from personal correspondence - to other parts of the Forest too. As I walk into Wanstead Park from Northumberland Avenue, I see that the verge on the edge of the Plain between the kiosk and the Temple is getting wider all the time. This threatens the very scarce colony of Harebells that exist just here. Similarly - although I can't say that it has widened this year - the stretch at the northern side of the western Plain between the Sweet-chestnut avenue and the Heronry Pond, which is used nowadays for exhibitors at the Music in the Park event could well threaten yet more Harebells if it were extended.

The Plain, Wanstead Park in July 2010

The whole area just south of the Temple grounds is becoming more like a lawn, and the "wild" area Plain is diminishing in size and being given over to recreation such as picnic-ing, football, Kite-flying and - worst of all in my opinion - a regular let's-make-Sunday-in the-Park-noisy fitness business. The barbecues are another matter...

However, the Park and Epping Forest as a whole, needs to be shared by different human uses and recreations, and the wildlife that it consists of and which live here. It is a similar situation on Wanstead Flats - far more obviously much more given over to sports-style recreation than the Park has been. Here the football pitches - about 60 of them - by there very nature require regular cuttings and maintenance. But there are some areas (without going into details here) which appear to me to be cut unnecessarily, for no sports activities actually use them, and for many years I have been concerned about the fact that it is all-to-easy to cut just a little bit closer in to the rough grassland at each sweep of the mowing-machines. Our precious Creeping Willow is threatened in this way, as may be the possibility of a Skylark having a habitat to nest in. So in Wanstead Park, it was particularly dismaying for me to see a piece of grassland cut that was was neither a hindrance to people, nor needed for recreation, nor getting out of hand. Indeed it was one of the most attractive piece of grassland in the whole park - a lovely area between the golf course fence and the Heronry Pond, near to the newly resurfaced (why?) Warren Lane. It was for years generally low grass anyway, with enough longer stems of grass for Burnet moths to lay eggs, pupate and fly from and flowers such as Bird'sfoot Trefoil to give colour and provide an attraction for not only the day-flying moths but  Small Heath, Small Copper, Blues and other species of butterfly and insects.

Wanstead Park - excess grass-cutting

Uncut grass to the left - Bird's foot Trefoil is making a comeback already in
the lawn to the left, but too late for a whole variety of butterflies and bugs!

Not this year, though - it has been cut. There's not much there now at all, and it's not so attractive visually to humans, I suggest. Why was it cut? Who's to say and who would say? Where is the Forest ecologist in all of this and who gives the orders and who manages the work? So many times in the past I have almost cried - or at least almost exploded - when I've seen such desecration. And it just keep going on.

I had an e-mail from another well-known and respected Forest naturalist who - without prompting from me - said "The grass gang have been close shaving some of the grassy sites and they have become just areas of parched stubble in stark contrast to other areas which are full of butterflies, bugs, etc. not to mention flowers!". She followed up by saying "Cutting it so short means disaster for several species especially those that thrive in longish grass, and I wonder what happens to all the cut grass?  The cut areas look so parched at the moment. Grasslands should be a mosaic of different heights, with space for ant hills, bits of bare ground for the ruderals to grow and for the rare mining bees to inhabit, bits of thatch for beetles to hide in and of course flowers for nectar and pollen as well as colour! Longer grass suits some species of grass-hopper, shorter areas other species - not the uniform shaved pad which seems to be the 'in' feature of the moment."

She is absolutely right. There is something wrong with the management of OUR Forest.

Paul Ferris, 15th July 2010