The Makeover Begins - Walcombe Slade Tree Felling
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Walcombe Slade is the valley that runs from the Downs plateau to the Portway immediately south of Sea Walls towards the Suspension Bridge. In 2006 large numbers of trees were felled from the north (Sea Walls) side and many from the lower slope of the south side. There are plans to fence all of this area and to put goats in to prevent trees from growing back there. |
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Medieval Bristolians knew this valley as Yewcombe. Groves of yew trees form part of the natural limestone gorge woodland of the Avon Gorge. Indeed limestone gorge woodland is the reason that the Gorge has been awarded Special Area of Conservation (SAC) status by the European Habitats Directive. Natural England, however, who are an unelected quango, and a law unto themselves, have decided that the area is to be grassland, and have started cutting down trees without any form of public consultation. |
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A furore in the local press (The Bristol Evening Post, Wednesday, Nov 29th 2006), prompted by the intervention of Downswatch, caused a halt to be made to the felling. These 'photos show yew trees that were saved, but had been marked for the axe, and the stumps of others. This is in an area that contains five of the six species mentioned in the SAC document (the european woodland conservation designation), but which is nevertheless scheduled for grassland in Natural England's management proposals. |
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What is astonishing is that Walcombe Slade contains most of the population of three of the rarest tree species on the planet, two of which are found only in the Avon Gorge (Bristol Whitebeam, Wilmott's Whitebeam and White's Whitebeam). These trees would not be here if the area had not returned to its natural condition during the last hundred years (since sheep stopped grazing the Downs). They will be put at great risk of destruction by the goats (who relish them), notwithstanding the crackpot scheme to protect the trees with fences within the perimeter fence. Behind all of these confused plans is a requirement for Natural England to hit government targets for environmental works! |
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This rush to hit targets is causing outrage among lovers of our landscapes nationally. Natural England simply do not care about the impact of their work upon the scenary. In recent letters to the Independent newspaper, works have been compared to "a scene from the Battle of the Somme" (Ashdown Forest), "a Waste Land" (Dorset Heaths), and "devastation" (Sefton Coast). Do we want more of this aggressive management to occur in the Avon Gorge? |
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There is no scientific concensus that these works, as proposed by Natural England, can restore changing environments, even if it accepted that that is desirable. THESE ARE EXPERIMENTS. What is happening is that a large burocracy has been constructed that is finding work for itself at large expense to the taxpayer. |
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There are large differences between the Cheddar Gorge, where goats have been introduced, again with some controversy, and the Bristol Avon Gorge. The Cheddar Gorge is not embedded in a city of half a million people! To start with it would be necessary to introduce robust fencing, possibly electrified. The Longleat Estate, who own the south side of the Cheddar Gorge have tried to use goats to improve biodiversity, but had to introduce a lot of fencing to control them. Similarly, the National Trust have tried sheep for the same reason. The pros and cons were described in an adept article by Chris Thorogood, a first year PhD student at University of Bristol. You might also read articles from the Nibblers Online Archive concerning keeping feral goats and their use in habitat management. |
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