FRIENDS DIARY DATES UPCOMING EVENTS ON THE FOREST: ISSUE NO 24 SUMMER 2018 Thursday 8th November 2018 - Members' Annual General Meeting 1st August, 5th September, 3rd October - Health Walk (Forest Centre) 2.00pm in the Education Barn, Ashdown Forest Centre 4/5th August, 11/12th August, 18/19th August, 25/26/27th August - Pop Up Café ASHDOWN FOREST To end of August - Nutley Art Group Exhibition Broad-bodied chaser Celebrating over 125 years of care for the Forest www.ashdownforest.org 9th August (tbc), 23rd August, 6th September - Writing Group 12th August - AFRA Pleasure Ride 13th August - Toddler Group (tbc) 2nd October and 15th January - Poets’ Walk 4th September, 18th September - Sheep Proof Your Dog life

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Design and production: Studio 4, [email protected] Photography: Steve Alton, Peter Eeles. Only printed on paper from sustainable forests. All paper used is FSC Certified and produced only at mills holding ISO 14001 certification. WELCOME We are grateful to Natural England for supporting Ashdown Forest Life. GOVERNANCE REVIEW UPDATE This site is part of the European Natura 2000 Network. It has been designated because it hosts some of Europe’s most threatened species and habitats. All 27 DEER PROGRAMME countries of the EU are working together through the Natura 2000 Network to safeguard Europe's rich and diverse natural heritage for the benefit of all. DISTURBANCE ON THE FOREST See www.natura.org. MANAGEMENT INFORMATION DOG ATTACKS THE CONSERVATORS OF ASHDOWN FOREST Ashdown Forest Centre, , , RH18 5JP ALAN WHITE T: 01342 823583 E: [email protected] www.ashdownforest.org Cover: Round-leaved sundew FCS offered to fund the purchase of 2 Dog Waste bins on a trial basis if the Board of Conservators would agree to fund the emptying costs. The bins are now in place in the Forest Centre and Broadstone Thank You and Welcome… Car parks with, to date, only positive feedback. In this difficult time of financial constraints and cut backs I am delighted to report on the support received from the Friends of Ashdown Forest, the Ashdown Forest Conservation Trust, several Parish and Town Councils on or adjacent to the Forest and the Community Society.

For many years the Conservators have been pursuing the purchase of Councils we approached who responded positively to our request 12.75 acres of woodland backing on to the Forest Centre and now, for a financial contribution to support our core activities: with a very generous grant from the Friends, that acquisition has finally become a reality. We have a work plan for the next few Ashurst Wood, Forest Row, , , Danehill, months, but volunteer teams have already been busy clearing , East Grinstead, West Hoathly, rhododendron and scrub throughout and specifically around the Fletching and Pillow Mounds discovered by the archaeological survey. The Friends also provided grants for the much-needed resurfacing of Long, Totals: 2017: £500; 2018/19: £9250; 2019/20: £5000 Broadstone and Kings Standing car parks and for ongoing support of the education programme. In addition, we received a further grant Although probably not comparable in terms of the amount, the from the Ashdown Forest Conservation Trust for the major Sewage donation made by the Fairwarp Community Society (FCS) was Pat Buesnel, Director Treatment Plant upgrade finally completed in December 2017. significant in what it is they chose to support. Dog waste continues [email protected] to be a major problem as many irresponsible dog owners and During 2017/18 we approached 15 Parish and Town Councils not walkers choose not to bag it up or flick it off the paths and rides only to request financial support but also to help create a better causing considerable mess and disrespect to others, not to mention understanding of our work and the management of the Forest. the health hazard it could cause. The problem is particularly acute Staff and Conservators attended several parish and town council in and around the Forest Centre and on the routes used by our meetings and met with individual councillors and local residents. education programme where a large number of complaints have We are extremely grateful to the 10 (out of 15) Parish and Town been received from children, teachers, parents and carers. We have had several staffing changes since our last edition – we have welcomed James Clow as North Deer Programme Chase Ranger, Katherine Meade as Forest Centre and Business Development Manager, Dan Graeme as 2017-2018 Grazing Officer and Duncan Thatcher as Countryside Worker. In the 2017/18 season 122 fallow deer were culled, consisting of 10% males In addition, a number of new volunteers have been with abnormalities or injuries which recruited and trained to support the staff in their had been caused by cars and fences, day to day work. and 90% females of breeding age. Thank you for all the support and assistance you This has been done with a large amount of support and give us and the interest you show in all aspects interest from the general public on the Forest. The stalkers of life on Ashdown forest. are working very well as a team, are getting to know local people in their stalking areas and are carrying out their stalking activities with great professionalism. The stalkers do carry ID cards which are attached on a lanyard and they will Governance Review Update be getting issued with uniform for next season to make them In the 2017 Summer edition of Ashdown Forest Life, I outlined the proposed more readily identifiable. new Governance arrangements for the Forest. During the summer season, when stalking is not permitted, Articles for the new ‘’Not for Profit’ Company Progress has also been made with the application we will be concentrating on getting deer impact assessments (Limited by Guarantee) have now been agreed to register the new Company as a Charity and our completed and checking the exclosure plots are all still intact. and application for registration at Companies intention is to progress this as soon as we can This will give us a better idea of the effect deer are having House is about to be made. following company registration. on the Forest and allow us to monitor the effectiveness Richard Stogdon of the cull.

James, Katherine and Duncan Bog pimpernel, thriving on the edge of a cattle ‘motorway’

Disturbance on the Forest It is easy to forget, on a quiet day with only the song of the skylarks to break the silence, that Ashdown Forest is almost entirely the product of human activity. The wide-open spaces and long views to the North and South Downs are the result of centuries of often intense activity, which has kept the trees at bay.

Our ancestors, eking out a living in the villages and the specialist species that make a home large mammals; the wild cattle and ponies, surrounding the Forest, would have taken what on the Forest are dependent on that habitat the deer and bison that would have been they could from the land in order to survive. and the processes that created it. abundant in the British Isles before humans Ashdown Forest occupies the highest part of the arrived on the scene. Not only can they coexist, Weald ridge – over 200m at Greenwood Gate – As a nation we tend to be very shy of disturbance; these habitat specialists actually need the and consequently is cold in winter and wet. we regard it as something negative, to be avoided disturbance caused by grazing animals; they The soil is extremely poor, and life would if at all possible. The familiar status quo is by far lack the ability to compete with the scrub that have been tough for the early Commoners. the more comfortable option. But for many would inevitable colonise if grazing ceased. The rights to cut firewood, animal bedding organisms, disturbance is vital. The effects of and turf for fuel would have been essential to cutting turf, for instance, or the poaching caused In the past, certain colonies of particular plant daily life, and the grazing of livestock would by cattle, created the spaces where many of our species on the Forest have been protected from have been a cornerstone of the local economy. iconic heathland species make a home. disturbance by fences. What tends to have It would be wrong to think of these Commoners happened, though, is that the species in question of the past as noble custodians of the land; Our aversion to disturbance, however, makes it has benefitted for a few years and then slowly they were fighting for survival in a all too tempting to shield the seemingly fragile declined as the vegetation has become rank. hostile environment. and delicate from harm in order to conserve There are only a handful of Early marsh-orchids them. A tiny orchid, for instance, would surely within their fenced enclosure, for example, but The activities they would have carried out be obliterated by 300kg of cow? But it is dozens now out on the open heath, where they through the seasons – cutting, burning, grazing – important to remember that most of our seem to live happily alongside cattle and sheep created the open heathland habitat we see today, heathland species evolved to live alongside in one of the Forest’s best valley mires. Management Information 2017-2018 The reintroduction of grazing to areas of is repeated across the Forest where grazing the Forest that have not been grazed in animals are opening up spaces for some of You will be interested recent history is beginning to show similarly our rarer species to flourish. to see the annual promising results. North of the Enchanted collation of management Place, for instance, gorse was burnt and then Embracing disturbance may require us to cut before cattle and sheep were introduced. step outside our comfort zone, but it is im- information for 2017/18 After two years of relatively intensive grazing, portant to see it in the context of the compared to the the main area of valley mire, trampled and Forest’s long history of – often intense – previous year. poached by the cattle, is a carpet of thousands human use. Without it, many of the of tiny Sundews, with Cottongrass and Bog species and habitats that make the asphodel beginning to spread. This picture Forest so special would be lost. We regularly update the data base and present to Board of Conservators on a quarterly basis and to the relevant Committee.

Round-leaved sundew, Early marsh-orchid newly sprouted in a cow’s hoofprint Dog Attacks on Livestock Alan White In 2017 there were 40 reported incidents of livestock worrying on Ashdown Forest, (Former Conservator and Trustee of 25 of these incidents were of dogs attacking sheep, and most of these attacks Ashdown Forest Conservation Trust) were fatal. The death toll is increasing. 25/04/1933 – 7/12/2017

This pattern is mirrored nationwide, where at The increasing problem of dogs attacking Alan and his wife, Christine, moved to least 15,000 sheep are killed by pet dogs each livestock is being debated in Parliament soon Duddleswell in 1983. However, prior to year. It is a huge animal welfare problem; it and organisations representing farmers, the that he finished his National Service with is causing great distress and financial losses sheep industry, conservation, the Kennel Club the Intelligence Corps based in Maresfield. to farmers and commoners and currently and the police are working on recommendations Following his retirement from banking in organisations are coming together to tackle and seeking increased powers to tackle the 1991, Alan involved himself in several the increasing problem. problem. For more information refer to the roles to support the Forest ‘as a place of Sheepwatch UK website. recreation and beauty’ including as an Two significant recent reports have been released: elected Commoner Conservative and an All Party Parliamentary Group Livestock worrying is a crime and needs to be Ashdown Forest Conservation for Animal Welfare Report reported in all cases. We need to make sure Trust trustee. A very well researched document looking at that all attacks on livestock on the Forest or on many aspects of sheep worrying, the cause, the land of those neighbouring the Forest are Christine was a regular rider on the Forest the effect and some solutions. reported to the Police. Dial 101 and ask for a also taking part in endurance rides across crime number. Unless there are statistics and the south east – she continued to come to Police Report a clear record of attacks, no resource will be the office for her riding permit each year A comprehensive report looking at the put in to tackling it. up until her death in 2015. effectiveness of the law and the number of convictions which have taken place. It also looks This useful leaflet has been produced Alan continued to take a keen interest in at why the number of attacks is not showing in and explains the law and best way to Forest matters living in Duddleswell until police records. report attacks. the last year of his life.