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BANSTEAD COMMONS CONSERVATORS |
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BCC News
Meeting dates: Conservators: Saturday 19th April 2008 and Saturday 19th July 2008. Banstead Heath Consultative Group: TBA Meetings held at the Banstead
Day Centre, Horseshoe, Banstead. Members of the public are
welcome to attend
to observe the proceedings.  20 November 2006: Park Downs Dog attackUnfortunately at the end of last week our worst fears were realised and the goats and sheep were attacked by a dog. The dog is still at large and so the grazing animals will be removed and will not return until such time we can be confident that there will be no more dog attacks. November 2006: Grazing We now have a small flock of sheep on Park Downs in addition to the goats, the two species differ in the way in which they graze and so will complement each other. Toward the end of the month a small sheep flock will return to Banstead Downs for a few months. Conservation grazing on Banstead Downs has been taking place for almost twenty years and we now have four paddocks that are grazed in rotation on a four-yearly cycle. This year it is the turn of the northenmost paddock, on the site of the old cricket pitch. October 2006: Grazing and goats!
From the
beginning
of this month, with the help of the DCMP, we are once again grazing
parts of
Park Downs with goats. Following
the dog
attack two years ago it is not surprising that there are some
reservations
about this and so we ask everyone to be vigilant and report the
presence of any
unaccompanied dogs in the area.
Grazing is very important to the maintenance and improvement of chalk grassland and although we also use forage harvesting this is not a long term replacement for grazing. We fervently hope therefore that this winter's grazing programme is uneventful. |