RAUK - Archived Forum - STOBOROUGH HYDE HEATH obliteration

It's down to cost Keith, same thing all over. Same sort of treatment of Danbury Common and Backwarden. Yes it needed management, but not like this.

What we loose is the soil structure too, it took years to form and is the reason we find herps on heaths and not in arable fields. Now some of these heaths have less value than an arable field.

But it is cheaper to get the job done by sending a contractor to bulldoze the site.

I've said it before and I will say it again, IF A DEVELOPER DID THIS THEY WOULD BE IN COURT - so why are the 'wildlife conservation organisations' getting away with it?

Longterm gains... no I know enough sites now that have had this sort of treatment in the past ten years where the animals are simply EXTINCT. Gone for good. The 'management' funding stream has dried up and it is reverting to gorse scrub. Conservation gain 0, negative effective 100%

Keep posting up the pictures Keith, one day they may even listen.

Keith,

You do realise that the photos you took show how naturally grazing cattle keep the heaths as they were in days of yore? They do this in Devon too. I am very impressed with how they push all the bits they can't chew into tidy piles like you have photographed

[QUOTE=wellies101]Have they explained (on-site) what work was done and why? [/QUOTE]

Are you being serious?

The work that was done was a bulldozer was used to clear annoying gorse (the same gorse that produces fantastic underground root systems used by native herptiles and provides essential cover)

The reason, because they got given some money to do it.

And before you come back on me Wellies... show me the pre-works survey report, you know the one written by a professional reptile specialist who surveyed the site (at the correct times of year and with sufficient effort) before they sent the diggers in.........

Welcome to the real world of conservation in action. I really should dig out some of my photos. The one of the Fire brigade doing their best to save a piece of heathland that was set light to by 'conservation volunteers' as I stood and watched after I repeatly stated over several years on this forum that Essex Wildlife trust should not light fires each spring during the spring adder emergence right next to the main hibernacula in an area surrounded by gorse and dry bracken comes to mind... Or perhaps the photographs of the 'professional worker' at the controls of a tractor trashing adder habitat, who stated in an email that he saw, 'lots of adders in the area' and when challenged by myself to stop trashing the area stated 'this isn't adder habitat'.

I had over 50 survey records for adder in that area. Guess what, not seen one there for three years.

I wish I could say that this suprises me but unfortunately it doesn`t.

Conservation in action indeed.

Superb timing on the contractor`s behalf, affecting the widest diversity of wildlife possible.

Hi Keith

I always think when something like this happens, it needs to get into the Local papers at least, stating the legal infringements and as you have photos and knowledge maybe let the paper know what they ( heathland terrorists) have done wrong? in the name of conservation, raise a bit of a stink about it

As the old saying goes, if it aint broken, don't fix it!!

Are you being serious?

The work that was done was a bulldozer was used to clear annoying gorse (the same gorse that produces fantastic underground root systems used by native herptiles and provides essential cover)

The reason, because they got given some money to do it.

And before you come back on me Wellies... show me the pre-works survey report, you know the one written by a professional reptile specialist who surveyed the site (at the correct times of year and with sufficient effort) before they sent the diggers in.........

Welcome to the real world of conservation in action. I really should dig out some of my photos. The one of the Fire brigade doing their best to save a piece of heathland that was set light to by 'conservation volunteers' as I stood and watched after I repeatly stated over several years on this forum that Essex Wildlife trust should not light fires each spring during the spring adder emergence right next to the main hibernacula in an area surrounded by gorse and dry bracken comes to mind... Or perhaps the photographs of the 'professional worker' at the controls of a tractor trashing adder habitat, who stated in an email that he saw, 'lots of adders in the area' and when challenged by myself to stop trashing the area stated 'this isn't adder habitat'.

I had over 50 survey records for adder in that area. Guess what, not seen one there for three years.

Why the sarcasm Wellies, as you are a ranger I assume you are a paid 'conservationist' - if you cannot see from the pictures that this sort of work is inexcusable, that the timing is wrong and that the work is in simple terms 'illegal' under the WCA due to the known presence of protected species then all it does is confirm what I have suspected for a long time regarding people like yourself.

'if the work was done to remove Gorse' ... why do you think it was done, landing pad for UFOs?

Please do get off my case, I know now who you are. Try getting up to speed on this issue instead of protecting those involved and looking for justifications (I also know you lied when you told me you had no connection with SWT on the other thread, their loyalty isn't as strong as yours lol), this isn't one case it is one of hundreds, this stuff  happens every day of the week and plenty of us here want to see the issue aired in public.

Actually personally, I want to see the perpetrators prosecuted under the WCA. Perhaps it is time to start contacting the contractors and letting them know the position these 'conservation organisations' are putting them in.

You got a copy of the pre-works survey report yet then?