Earlier this week the National Trust released three young Belted Galloway calves onto Marley common. Marley common is on the northwestern (frontier) corner of West Sussex, just to the south of Haslemere. I help manage one part of Marley common for the Lynchmere Society and over the last couple of years the Society and the Trust have been working jointly to prepare for the reintroduction of grazing on the common.
The calves were released by Dave the NT Bladcdown Head Warden, Sarah Bain the chair of the local NT Blackdown committee and Michael Shaw, chair of the Lynchmere Society. Once persuaded to leave their comfy trailer by Dave they shot out and disappeared into the nearby gorse scrub.
The common was last grazed in the mid 20th century and since then the heathland has been suppressed by the growth of scrub woodland. Bringing back the grazing is an important tool in restoring the commons to a mosaic of lowland heath and wood pasture and increasing the biodiversity of the site.
But nowadays we can't just release cattle as we would only a few years ago. So we have been clearing a fence line and putting in fences and gates to prepare for the grazing over the last year. The fencing has been built using chestnut coppiced from local NT woods and prepared and installed by local coppice workers.
The young Belted Galloways are well suited to the rough grazing and should help us to keep the scrub down. The use of Belted Galloways or 'Belties' is particularly welcome as it's only a few months since the last of a herd of Belties established by the late Peter Burkitt on the nearby Lynchmere Ridge ceased grazing the fields.
For them to get accustomed to the common a temporary electic fenced enclosure has been built. After a couple of weeks here the young calves will then be allowed to roam over the rest of the common until they are taken off to winter on the nearby National Trust meadows at Shottermill.
Unfortunately I managed to make a classic mistake. I was in a hurry to take photos and then get back to a job, but when I later looked at the photos it was clear that I have loads of the rear of the cattle and none from the front. Mainly because the young calves took very little time to move off and get down to the serious business of grazing. Never mind. We're lucky that Dave, the NT head warden managed to prise these calves away from the NT herd at Woolbeding and we are looking forward enormously to working with them and the others that will soon join them to establish a new herd on Marley.
1 comment:
A great post. It will be interesting to see how the project develops and what changes begin to be seen on Marley common, as a result of the grazing.
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