News from Cranford CP

I've known for some weeks that there are plans to bring in some grazing cattle at Cranford Park. I couldn't imagine where they would be put out to graze, or how having cattle on a park like Cranford CP would work, and today I had the chance to find out some more information.

 

I had already quizzed a good friend of mine who is employed by the RSPB and daily undertakes habitat work and this is her expert opinion......

 

Grazing with livestock is pretty essential to open habitats. A grazing regime/plan needs to be based upon the site itself. Without grazing an open grassland area undergoes natural succession into woodland overtime and open habitat would be lost. Basically we use grazing to replicate the natural processes that wild animals took care of before the human race wiped them out years and years ago. Cattle grazing is beneficial for butterflies. The grass doesn't grow too long and smother wildflowers, so grazing ensures wildflowers can thrive. Cattle move around areas and overtime create a nice mosaic in the grassland which is suitable for wildlife.

 

I've been trying to edit a map with the area marked off, but am failing dismally so below is a photo of a copy of my butterfly transect map of the park that I took with me on todays visit. The grazing area allocated to the cattle is the bottom of the photo....

 

 

East side of the end of the park

Cranford Lane houses at the back

west side of the park

I was particularly worried about a few things......

• The fact that there are some park users who are happy to ruin things for others and vandalise anything they can get their grubby hands on, makes me very uneasy about the welfare of the cattle if there's no one else around.
• I was also initially worried that my UKBMS butterfly transect route would be disrupted/lost as the grazing area cuts into it by about a fifth.
• I was also concerned about how much of the park would be fenced off to the regular park visitors.
• I don't know about anyone else but coming face to face with eight cattle doesn't appeal to me, so how safe are walkers who go through the grazing area ?

 

I got a few answers today but I know from talking to some of the regular dog walkers and park visitors today, that there will be more questions in the future.

 

There will be eight young cattle, no feeding females, calves or bulls.

There will be four kissing gates in the enclosure, one for each fenced off side, so there will still be access through the grazing area.

Dogs will need to be kept on leads within the area.

This is not permanent, this site will be for this summer only.

There will be a 24hour contact number in case of emergencies.

The area takes up roughly a quarter of the open grassland meadow, no woodland will be affected.

 

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. For now I remain on the fence. There are some things that don't appeal to me about cattle grazing at Cranford CP, but in the same breath there are some things that do appeal to me.

 

Watch this space.......

 

I didn't stay too long today but did get in a good walk.

The wild plum trees by the underpass are in full bloom, promising a good fruit season this year.....

 



 

The ramsoms (wild garlic) that are prolific in St Dunstans have already spread a great carpet of leaves despite two recent heavy cold spells.....

and the native Bluebell leaves have pushed through very nicely all over Cranford Woods.....

 



 

Several clumps of violets can also be seen now, but strangely I didn't find any flowering Lesser Celandine on todays visit.....

 

With all the bare branches any oak galls could be easily seen today. I checked each one I found for a tell tale pinhole. There weren't that many really, considering the amount of galls I found. The pinhole is where the adult parasitic wasp has chewed it's way out of the mass after spending the last few months as a grub inside it....

 

Oak gall wasp pinhole - bottom ball left handside

 During the very few sunny periods I saw the odd bee. No Honeybees today, it was probably just that bit too chilly, but I saw several bumble bees including the one below. I don't have my reference books to hand so tentatively identifying this as a Buff-tail and happy to be corrected...

 

 

Up on the stone bridge over the river I heard then saw one of our Kingfishers whizzing past. There was a Little Egret on the river too, the first time I've seen one there for many months. It was spooked by a jogger on the path so both photos below were hastily grabbed....

 

A very short visit for me but one which made me look at the park in a different light.

Cranford is a 'country park' not a 'nature reserve'. Are grazing cattle the right or the wrong thing for a country park of that size ? How much disturbance will they create ? Or will they tip the balance between wildlife and habitat ? What about the cattle's welfare ? The risk from some of the more unsavoury park visitors ?

 

As I said, everyone is entitled to their own opinion.......