£45K boost for wildlife project

£45K boost for wildlife project £45K boost for wildlife project

A NEW campaign to protect wildlife in the New Forest has received a £45,000 boost.

The National Park Authority (NPA) has obtained a grant towards the cost of developing community wildlife plans with the help of parish councils and other organisations.

The plans will identify habitats such as ponds, rivers and woodland – and the species that live in them.

An NPA spokesman said: “The aim is to help residents better understand the importance of where they live and how changes in wildlife management and restoration projects will enhance these areas.

“Godshill, Hordle, Landford, Marchwood , Milford on Sea, New Milton and West Wellow have been chosen as pilot areas.

“In each area community wildlife champions will receive training from a project officer.

“They will work with the Land Advice Service, leading survey work and becoming local experts on natural environment issues.”

The grant has come from the Rural Development Programme for England.

Kathryn Boler, the NPA’s external funding officer, said the project would help residents protect key habitats and species.

“It is a great opportunity for people with an interest in wildlife to get involved and find out what is on their doorstep.”

Comments(12)

OSPREYSAINT says...
7:05pm Fri 27 Jul 12

How about a few fences to keep roadkill down on the main roads?

Solomon's Boot says...
7:42pm Fri 27 Jul 12

How about people drive more carefully on the main roads, OSPREYSAINT?

OSPREYSAINT says...
7:49pm Fri 27 Jul 12

Solomon's Boot wrote:
How about people drive more carefully on the main roads, OSPREYSAINT?
In an ideal World that would be the solution, all the time you have numpties in charge of killing machines, they will continue to kill.

Torchie1 says...
8:19pm Fri 27 Jul 12

OSPREYSAINT wrote:
How about a few fences to keep roadkill down on the main roads?
People would rather take the opportunity to whine about achieving the impossible and happily sacrifice forest animals in pursuit of their argument.

OSPREYSAINT says...
8:27pm Fri 27 Jul 12

Even the most careful driver in the World could never anticipate the movements of wild animals on to the road, reduced speed might lessen the impact, but it is still likely to happen, better to create ways of preventing animals from getting on the roads in the first place, not rocket science and plenty of material available to create rustic fencing which won't look out of place.

Dragonqueen says...
9:23pm Fri 27 Jul 12

Great way to stop the road kill is ban sat nav that take people down roads that they would not normal even think about, and as the project is about ponds, rivers and woodlands where car don't normal go think this is great would love to help with this project how do you voluenteer to help with this?

Torchie1 says...
9:39pm Fri 27 Jul 12

Dragonqueen wrote:
Great way to stop the road kill is ban sat nav that take people down roads that they would not normal even think about, and as the project is about ponds, rivers and woodlands where car don't normal go think this is great would love to help with this project how do you voluenteer to help with this?
The animals have been involved in accidents since decades before the advent of Sat-Nav. Reducing the speed limit hasn't had any effect at all on the numbers and you have to ask why the narrow twisting roads through the Beaulieu Estate used to be protected by cattle grids which were removed to allow the animals to wander along these dangerous roads. Replacing these grids would have a positive effect but the greater good is served by making the whole road network accessible to animals and rely on the anti-motorist argument when the animals pay the price. Hundreds if not thousands of animals will die before the growing number of people like Ospreysaint manage to convince the Commoners that they are living in the 21st century not the 18th.

garlic says...
1:11am Sat 28 Jul 12

Just ban cars in the New Forest (with the possible exception of residents permits) and keep the national park for walkers, cyclists and wildlife. People can drive round it or take trains or buses through it.

forest tony says...
8:40am Sat 28 Jul 12

Return all roads in the Forest back to gravel, that will slow down the killing machines!

freefinker says...
9:18am Sat 28 Jul 12

.. why the picture of a horse?

This project is about wildlife - not domesticated species.

And another thing, how misleading are all those New Forest signs saying " n number of animals killed on this road this year". Seems to me they are only recording, again, domesticated species.

Why are they not actually counting ALL animals killed?

Torchie1 says...
9:58am Sat 28 Jul 12

forest tony wrote:
Return all roads in the Forest back to gravel, that will slow down the killing machines!
Statistically, the millions of vehicular movements taking place across the forest every year will mean that there will be a tiny number of accidents and the numbers are very small. These numbers have remained roughly the same in spite of the increased number of vehicles which is an improvement in real terms. The refusal to move with the times and yearn for centuries gone by won't help the animals and the small number of 'foresters' have to accept that they change with the times or keep moaning about 'fallen stock'. An argument against fencing is an argument in favour of animal accidents because fences have been shown to work on the A31, A35 and the A326 which are all forest roads with excellent records of zero animal deaths.

Username :) says...
1:10pm Mon 30 Jul 12

Torchie1 wrote:
forest tony wrote:
Return all roads in the Forest back to gravel, that will slow down the killing machines!
Statistically, the millions of vehicular movements taking place across the forest every year will mean that there will be a tiny number of accidents and the numbers are very small. These numbers have remained roughly the same in spite of the increased number of vehicles which is an improvement in real terms. The refusal to move with the times and yearn for centuries gone by won't help the animals and the small number of 'foresters' have to accept that they change with the times or keep moaning about 'fallen stock'. An argument against fencing is an argument in favour of animal accidents because fences have been shown to work on the A31, A35 and the A326 which are all forest roads with excellent records of zero animal deaths.
I've seen 2 dead deer on the A35 in the last 12 months. I also usually see deer on the road at various times 22:00 - 06:00.

60mph + deer could = dead driver as well as dead deer, and it's not easy to see them always in the dark.


I'd argue that being evidence against fencing, as it leads to a false belief the road is sterile of wildlife and high speeds. (Even our motorway network has regular instances of escaped cattle/horses etc on it).


I'd say to keep the forest fenceless, and driver speeds down. It's not just horses/cattle on the roads, but cyclists and pedestrians.

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