Major cuts in Wanstead Park

No, I'm not talking about any possible cuts in the budget allocated to Wanstead Park or even Epping Forest as a whole, I am talking about cuts to vegetation adjacent to some of the lakes in the Park.

This has taken place over the last week or so, at the end of August, and I am sure that in many places the spread of plants - particularly bramble - was required to be restricted in some way. However, I am not so sure that the end of August is the best time to do it. It is perhaps unlikely that there will have been nesting birds - though possible - but the plants along the edge of Heronry Pond, for example, are alive at this time of year with insects: butterflies, hoverflies and damselflies amongst them.

Flowers by the Perch Pond earlier in August

But it is the lake-edge at the east end of Perch Pond that has particularly distressed me. In the middle of August the edge of the lake is a glory of colours with a variety of plants in flower, and plenty of insects making use of them. If you think about it, Epping Forest isn't the best place to see lots of plants in flower; it is usually on the banks of rivers and lakes that we have our most prolific displays, and may be one of the reasons that we visit these places. Now this display has been slashed to ground-level, and the machine that was used has even cut the emergent vegetation for up to a metre or so out into the water. This does happen yearly, and it always recovers to display again the next year, but why is it necessary to do it at this time, before the flowering has finished? Plants that have been "massacred" include willow-herb, bur-reed, fleabane, ragwort, hawkweeds and both purple and yellow loosestrife.

Perch Pond, Wanstead Park. The lake-side in late AugustA couple of weeks ago I wrote an article about over-enthusiastic cutting of grass in the Park (here). It is a shame that more of the effort involved in doing work of this sort could not be put into clearing some of the paths in the Park; the bramble that has been cleared by Heronry Pond where it was not a nuisance is elsewhere obstructing paths so that they are all but impassable - by the Shoulder of Mutton Pond the path along the east edge of this is in a very poor state.

I am tempted to "send a letter", but from past experience any such approaches usually meet a brick-wall. There's the choice - a brick wall or flowers and insects.

Paul Ferris, 28th August