The Shape Of Things To Come?

Or the Downswatch perception of the Bristol City Council plans for the region

Created September 2009

The woodland within the yellow lines is inside a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for plants of open grassland. These areas have been designated as being in "unfavourable condition" by natural England because they are woodland. To put them in a "favourable condition" will mean cutting down the trees. People do not want to see hundreds of trees cut down. Woodland is also essential to mitigate the effects of climate change. The SSSI should be reduced in size to cover only the parts where grassland plants are in evidence, and conservation efforts concentrated there.
If you click on the green icons various aspects of the future management are revealed; red icons (scroll east to see), show regions where trees have been cut down recently.
Read the Downswatch Plan for the Downs and Avon Gorge Management here.

There are two parts to the Council plans for the Downs and Avon Gorge:

  1. Avon Gorge Management Plan, Consultation Draft, and concerning proposals for management of the Avon Gorge. This document was withdrawn and is unavailable from the Council at present, so we have reproduced some of its content here.
  2. Bristol Parks. The Downs Management Plan on the Council web site here, alternatively try this link.

The "Fifty Year Vision": a look at the new management plans for the Avon Gorge

In November 2006 the Council and Natural England published a draft management plan for the Avon Gorge. In it, under the heading "A 50 Year Vision", they put forward a proposal for the future design of the Avon Gorge (and Downs) landscape:

"... Walcombe Slade, the Gully, and Fairland form a large block of calcareous grassland with scattered tress and patches of scrub. This area, together with adjacent parts of Durdham Down, is grazed by mixed agricultural stock. Green Valley is predominated wooded but there is a belt of grassland connecting the northern part of the site to St Vincent's Rocks."

The map shows how the above scheme will involve cutting down huge swathes of the trees enclosed within the yellow lines. And another scheme to cut down all the trees around Observatory Hill is soon to be implemented if fierce local opposition does not succeed in putting a stop to it. The green markers point to aspects of the plan on various parts of the map.

When Bristol Downswatch informed the local media of the intended tree clearances proposed by the the 2006 management plan the public outcry that resulted caused a halt to the felling that was getting underway in Walcombe Slade and the "Draft Managment Plan" was withdrawn. The redrafted plan, published in 2009, avoids contentious issues like tree felling and concentrates on consolidating tree clearance "gains" in Walcombe Slade by fencing the area to enclose goats. Although to fence the Downs contravenes the Downs Act and is therefore both illegal and beyond the powers of the Downs Committee, the Council and Natural England would appear to be determined to go ahead with it. We are told that only a few more trees will need to be cut down to put the goat pen in place.

Walcombe Slade yew marked for felling Walcombe Slade Yew tree marked for felling.

It is clear that the Council and Natural England intend to proceed bit by bit with management proposals for the Avon Gorge henceforth in order to avoid public opposition to large scale tree clearance. However a scrutiny of the Natural England website (see here, look at the assessment dates), reveals that the ambitious clearance plans set out in the 2006 management plan are still extant. According to this, the entire stretch of woodland from Cookes Folly Wood (Unit 11) to St Vincent's Rocks (Unit 17) is designated as an SSSI because of grassland species, and is considered to be in "unfavourable condition" simply because it is woodland, and unsuitable for grassland species. Since Natural England are required by Government to maintain the sites that they manage in a "favourable condition" it must follow that they still propose felling large areas of woodland on the Avon Gorge sides, as they proposed in the 2006 plan.

If you wish to see what all this will involve look at the north slope of the Gully - or the Samuel Johnson picture reproduced on the Observatory Hill poster.