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Hengistbury Head wildlife 'not at risk from work' says Bournemouth council (From Thisisdorset)
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Hengistbury Head wildlife 'not at risk from work' says Bournemouth council
2:00pm Tuesday 9th February 2010
BOURNEMOUTH council has reassured residents that work going on at Hengistbury Head is necessary to protect wildlife.
Ward councillors Basil Ratcliffe and Eddie Coope were contacted by worried residents who said that land at Whitepits was being cleared by machinery.
But Mark Holloway, senior community parks & countryside officer, said that the work had been agreed with Natural England and would help rare wildlife.
He said: “These habitat management works are part of the enhancement of the Nature Reserve and the Site of Special Scientific Interest and have been agreed with Natural England.
“We introduced cattle grazing to this area three years ago in order to discourage scrub such as gorse and bramble in favour of grasses and wildflowers, insects, mammals, the rare natterjack toads and birds. However sometimes the scrub is so dense the cattle cannot make any inroads therefore we need to manually remove it, which is what we are doing at present.”
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Your Say YourDorset
Alice Jennings, Southbourne says...
9:11am Wed 10 Feb 10
Random Element, Ringwood says...
9:45am Wed 10 Feb 10
dancingdog wrote:This is because reptiles and amphibians are cold blooded and hibernate through the winter months. This is why the scrub clearance is carried out in the winter so they are not disturbed. Reptiles also prefer heath and grassland which is what it seems this work is trying to do. So I think you need to find out more about the subject before getting people to make a 'Call' when there isn't one to be made
Bet they didn't remove the snakes first though!
So why do they need to do it beside the A338?
Your call Mark.
AAOC, Wareham says...
10:55am Wed 10 Feb 10
Alice Jennings wrote:A very good point. We - Anglo American Oil (www.aaoil.co.uk) in Wareham - supply a range of more environmentally-frie
It's not just the machinery that is a problem, but, of course the fuel they use. Chainsaws and excavators emit lots of polluting exhaust gases and in such a sensitive - in fact, any -area, these are damaging. There are alternatives to regular petrol and diesel fuels and I'm sure that a company somewhere in Dorset supplies them. Any ideas? If I drop litter at the Head, I would be prosecuted and rightly so, but if a worker, sanctioned by the council, knowingly pollutes the area with toxic fumes, he gets away scot-free! It should be illegal!!
ndly fuels for petrol- and diesel-engined machinery, which is ideal for such sensitive areas, and is better for workers and their machines.
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dancingdog, Bournemouth says...
6:47pm Tue 9 Feb 10
So why do they need to do it beside the A338?
Your call Mark.