Exchange Lands Cycle Path update

Work to lay the surface of the Roding Valley Way shared-use track through the Exchange Lands started during the first half of April - a very wrong time for such disturbance to be taking place. (see here for previous article) Already many birds had started nesting in the vegetation alongside the route - birds like Long-tailed Tits would have made use of such areas, Common Whitethroats - one of the specialities of this area - had just started to move in and Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps were vigorously singing during a Wren Group migrant bird-watch walk there on 15th. It may have been that bad weather had delayed a proposed start, but this disregard of the wildlife aspect of the area in favour of a cycle route is typical of the attitude in general towards our environment.

Construction work in the Exchange Lands on 4th AprilA couple of weeks ago there was an article on Radio 4 that talked about just how rare Lesser-spotted Woodpeckers are. The CIty of London Corporation - in their efforts to protect people from branches of trees falling on heads - had just had the tops lopped off  the very trees that had provided nesting places last year for this species and Little Owls on Wanstead Flats! Also on Wanstead Flats - and for reasons that I cannot think of lest it be stop people tripping on uneven  ground - the rough grassland around one of our rare Creeping Willow shrubs is now being mown - leaving it isolated in a lawn. In Wanstead Park, the area that is being mown for recreation and picnic purposes (I suppose) seems to be expanding and I fear that it will at some time encroach upon one of the Park's rarities - the Harebell. Swings and roundabouts, anyone?

On a more positive note - I hope - the Skylarks on the Flats will soon be nesting and signs should be up advising dog-walkers of this, encouraging them not to let their dogs run loose over those areas. Similarly, in Wanstead Park the Bluebells of Chalet Wood are becoming very flowery, and the signs that were put up at the access-points to that wood asking to avoid trampling and not to pick, should have gone up. Those Bluebells are a victim of their own success, with bluebell walks already organised, individuals and families going to enjoy them and photographers going to photograph them. Let us hope that the tepee-builders don't have too much impact this year; the trampling caused by this fun-activity is seriously detrimental to the development of the plants and should be discouraged. I really think that we should even go to the extreme of erecting temporary fenced routes for people to follow - no more than low, roughly constructed single-log barriers - to act more as psychological barriers than physical ones. Might be able to make some good use of those felled or fallen branches?

Paul Ferris, 17th April 2012