A rolling management plan for scrub within the Downs

Bristol Parks Department are about to initiate what they call "a rolling management plan for scrub within the Downs". As well as removing areas of woodland to increase the area of grassland, they also want to remove some of the islands of vegetation and small copses that are a feature of present day Downs landscape, and to change the composition of plant species within the clumps of vegetation which remain.

This is driven by the fear that the Downs have become too overgrown in recent decades for a landscape that ought, in the view of the authorities, to be open grassland, and by a theory of environmental management that holds that scrub (which is a species rich environment), will evolve to woodland (which is less environmentally desireable from a wildlife management perspective), if it is not regularly cut through and thinned out by removing larger trees and less valuable species.

This may be good practice in a rural environment (South Downs, Wiltshire Downs), where an established agricultural landscape is threatened by a recent change of land use, i.e. cessation of sheep grazing, and is in danger of returning, via scrub, to woodland. However this then begs the question if it is possible at all to maintain grazed land other than by grazing it; remember that the Bristol Downs have not been grazed intensively for more than a hundred years.

But, Bristol Downs are not this kind of landscape. The established landscape of the Downs that we now enjoy has evolved over one hundred and sixty years, since the Bristol Downs Act of 1851, into an urban amenity landscape. It has been managed by mowing to keep areas of open grassland intersperced with areas of vegetation which are enjoyed particularly because they have been shaped by natural processes, and are NOT managed other being kept in sensible limits by mowing tight around them. These natural islands make the Downs what it is, they create intimate landscapes of great charm, and an important sense of naturalness in the context of an urban setting.

Now, a modern kind of "environmental correctness" means that there is a danger that vegetation on the Downs will in future be managed by nature conservation professionals ticking boxes for management of downland, egged on by health and safety issues.

It is of course critically important that nature conservation works are successful. There can be no doubt about that. The Wildflower Meadow has been a tremendous asset to the Downs, and sensible management of vegetation is necessary to ensure the future of rare species on the Downs and in the Avon Gorge. The problem as we see it is that the interests of the nature conservation lobby, as well as Government nature conservation policy have taken presidence over everything else on the Downs and in the Avon Gorge.

There needs, as a matter of urgency, to be policy development to ensure the protection of visual amenity values on the Downs and in the Avon Gorge. It is our contention that management proposals amount to the redesigning of a landscape that is internationally celebrated. Who is qualified, responsible, and accountable (and provided with clear policy guidelines), to oversee this work? Anyone?

The rule of thumb in the Gorge and on the Downs, is that management should ensure that the landscape has the appearance of being shaped by natural processes. Cutting down blocks and swathes of the Gorge hanging woodland, and initiating a rolling plan of human intervention will irrevocably spoil the natural look of the landscape.