Sandgate Conservation Society

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Sullington Warren field day tasks in Autumn 2018

You may be aware that there has been a change of local National Trust personnel in the last couple of months.  We have said a fond goodbye to Andy who has taken another job in in different part of the country with another conservation organisation.  We wish him and his family the best of luck for the future.  In July we welcomed Ashley, who has been seconded from his permanent job in the Birling Gap area to cover our local ranger post until the end of the year.

In the short time Ashley will be with us he is keen that Sandgate Conservation Society field day volunteers carry out a couple of projects that have an identifiable conclusion, provide a visible improvement and give a sense of achievement.  Much of the work we do on the Warren can seem invisible or require a long time before the benefits materialise.

The two tasks we will be working on are

  • clearing the area in front of the small wooden bench that overlooks the Green (up from the stony path towards the windmill shaft). This will open up the view from the bench over the Green. This work was started in July and is expected to continue in September and October.
  • clearing gorse from around the stone seat on the large barrow to open up views from the stone seat.  You can see from photographs published elsewhere on this website that the view from the stone seat used to be clear across to Chanctonbury Ring.  It will be interesting to see how much of that view we will be able to recreate!  The additional benefit is that as the barrow is a scheduled ancient monument English Heritage require that it be kept clear of large shrubs and trees which obscure and damage it.

With both tasks completed it may become possible to view the stone seat from the wooden bench and the wooden bench from the stone seat across the Green.

Photographs of Sullington Warren between the 1930s and 1980s

Sullington Warren is an area of rare and treasured lowland heath.  Surrounded by development and increasingly heavily used by people to walk their dogs or just enjoy the peace and quiet, maintaining the Warren’s habitats for reptiles, birds and invertebrates is a challenge.

Little can be done to prevent harm to the Warren caused by erosion of the delicate soil by wear and unwanted fertilisation of the low nutrient soil by dog waste except to appeal to the users of the Warren to keep to established paths, to respect the by-laws and not ride bicycles, horses or any unauthorised motorised vehicle on the Warren and for dog walkers to clear up after their dogs and dispose of the waste responsibly.

What can be done is to check the growth of unwanted trees and shrubs, remove some of the unwanted vegetation already there and encourage heather to regrow on cleared areas.  The Warren also boasts several Bronze Age barrows which are scheduled ancient monuments and which need to be kept  clear of trees and shrubs to meet the requirements of English Heritage.

The felling of trees is sometimes unpopular.  On the Warren the trees that are felled are mainly Scots pine, not a locally native species and mostly have only appeared on the Warren in the last 60 years or so.

These photographs show how the Warren has become gradually more wooded over the past few decades.

Society update

Chairman

At the AGM in May Jacinta White stepped down as Chairman of the trustee committee and did not put herself forward for re-election to the committee.  She still intends to be actively involved with the Society by joining our work mornings and providing refreshments for our Sullington Warren mornings and speakers’ evenings.

We do not currently have a replacement chairman.

Trustees

We have a new trustee.  Chris Barrow has been a frequent volunteer at our Sandgate Park work mornings since moving to the area.  Apart from Jacinta stepping down from the trustee committee all other trustees were re-elected.

Honorary President

Don Filliston’s death earlier this year left the Society without an Honorary President.  Whilst the Society does not need to have an Honorary President the role provides the Society with a figure head.  The trustee committee invited Bill Cutting to take on the role of Honorary President of the Society.  We feel that Bill’s long association with the Society, including one time editor of the newsletter with his wife Lesley, and his role dealing with local planning concerns, means that he represents a continuation of the aims and values of the Society and make Bill an ideal person for the role.  We are very pleased that Bill accepted our invitation.

How to help hedgehogs

With the weather finally warming up hedgehogs are now out and about. You will probably know that the British hedgehog population has suffered a disastrous crash. It is estimated that there were 36 million hedgehogs in the 1950s and less than 1 million now. 10 million have been lost since 2003.  What is the cause of this?

Reasons for population decline

Some people will have you believe that it is because of badgers. While badgers will eat hedgehogs when hungry research shows that in the past the level of badger predation on hedgehogs has been low because there were plenty of places hedgehogs could avoid badgers. Sadly, the loss of hedgerows and cover due to intensive farming means that cover for hedgehogs has declined. 

Badgers also prefer to eat earthworms but as intensive farming degrades the condition of soil the numbers of earthworms available for badgers, and hedgehogs, to eat decreases, resulting in hungry hedgehogs that starve and hungry badgers who will be happy to eat a hedgehog.

Hedgehog

Other problems for hedgehogs include:

  • habitat fragmentation and loss
  • road deaths
  • poisoning
  • other man-made hazards, including accidental trapping [The accidental trapping hazard is likely to become more of an issue now that DEFRA has approved the controversial A24 trap.  While in the UK the hedgehog is not the target species for the A24 trap, the trap was developed in New Zealand, where introduced European hedgehogs are considered a pest due to their impact on native fauna, specifically as a hedgehog trap]

How you can help

Help hedgehogs to get around by giving them a safe route to travel between gardens.  Gaps in fences and under gates allow hedgehogs to move between gardens.  Routes that avoid roads protect the hedgehog from one of its major hazards – road traffic.  Adding a 10cm hole at ground level is all you need – speak to your neighbours to see if they would also be willing to do the same.  Even better, consider replacing fences with hedging – a native hedge is cheap to grow and will also support a lot of other wildlife.  Also look for any hedgehog obstacles, such as steps, and provide little ramps for the hedgehogs.

Stop using slug pellets.  They poison hedgehogs and other wildlife – much of which would help you control slugs and snails.  There are many other methods to control slugs and snails such as beer traps, empty grapefruit halves, egg shells, that do result in poisoned wildlife.

Reduce the hazards to hedgehogs in your garden.  Always check bonfires for hedgehogs before you light them.  Take extreme care when using strimmers – these result in the serious injury and death of many hedgehogs.   Also, if you are mowing long grass, check first for hedgehogs.  If you have a garden pond make sure it has a hedgehog escape route in the event a hedgehog falls into it.

To compensate for the loss of natural habitat provide hedgehog shelter in your garden.  A wild corner sheltered from the wind and too much sun will do.  Leave the grass to grow long and the weeds to become wild flowers.  Provide a pile of twigs, dead wood or a log pile. You can even make or buy a weatherproof hedgehog shelter.

Hedgehogs need to put on weight in the summer and autumn so they do not starve when they go into hibernation.  To help them out why not feed them.  Do not give them milk or bread as these will make them sick.  Safe food includes: any meat based cat / dog wet food (not fish based ones); hedgehog food / biscuits; kitten biscuits (chicken); sunflower seeds; nuts (not salted); suet pellets with insects.  Hedgehog feedingYou can occasionally give them mealworms but while hedgehogs enjoy mealworms they are a poor source of nutrition for them.  Don’t forget to provide fresh water.  You may need to build a hedgehog feeding station to exclude foxes and cats from your hedgehog feast.

Finally, if you see a hedgehog in the road when you are driving try to avoid it.  If you saw a hedgehog sized rock in the road you would drive around it if you could.  If you can, stop and move the hedgehog off the road (only if you can do so without putting yourself or others in harms way).  You may sometimes find a hedgehog on the side of the road unable to climb the kerb- give it some help to get off the road

Don Filliston

It is great sadness that we have to let you know that Don Filliston MBE, our Honorary President, died peacefully in his sleep at his home last weekend. He was being taken care of by his two daughters and nurses from St Barnabas House Hospice.

Don Fillison

We will inform members by email of the funeral arrangements. If you are a member but are not receiving emails from us it is because we do not have an email address for you. If this is the case and you wish to be told of the funeral arrangements then please contact us.

Update on Longbury Hill Wood

Background

Longbury Hill Wood is a 10 hectare woodland bounded by Rock Road to the north and Hampers Lane to the west.  A planning application, DC/17/2117, was submitted for an access road to be built from Rock Road to facilitate forestry felling.  This application, in addition to the proposed felling, resulted in considerable local opposition.  The site is included in the Local Green Spaces report of the Local Neighbourhood Plan (currently draft) as it is, unofficially, used as a local green space for dog walking by local residents.

The proposed felling, under Forestry Commission licence FLA 019/180/17-18, includes the clear felling of a large area of mature Scots pine, some coppicing of broadleaf trees and some rhododendron clearing.  The access road and associated hard-standing and turning area is required to allow access for log removal, the existing access from Hampers Lane being deemed unsuitable.

Sandgate Conservation Society’s position

The Society’s interest in the planning application and felling licence arose from its location between Warren Hill and Sandgate Park and the value of the site as a wildlife corridor between them, as well as as a wildlife habitat in its own right, particularly arising from the low level of human activity on the Longbury Hill Wood site.

The Society is not opposed to appropriate woodland management, the felling of dense stands of commercially planted Scots pine, coppicing and rhododenron clearing could be highly beneficial  in improving the natural habitat, but the concern was around the scale and speed of the process and methods that would be used, and whether these would be harmful to any protected species on the site.  Whilst the Society recognised the rights of the owner of the wood to carry out felling under licence, the lack of clarity over the conditions placed on the owner in terms of avoidance of harm to protected species, and restocking and management after tree felling raised a number of questions.

The Society was also concerned that the Anglo-Saxon boundary bank that runs along parts of the western and northern boundaries of the wood should not be damaged by the access road.

Local residents voiced other concerns relating to loss of a local amenity, general loss of trees, increased traffic, additional road hazards etc.  The Society did not feel that was within its remit to raise objections to the planning application in relation to these issues but largely agreed with and echoed the concerns raised by Washington Parish Council.

Actions taken by Sandgate Conservation Society

The Society commented on the planning application (DC/17/2117) and raised issues on the report to the planning committees for 21st November 2017 and 19 December 2017.  It also researched the Anglo-Saxon boundary bank and provided details to local county councillors for their information and corresponded with the Forestry Commission.

Conclusion

A felling licence has been granted for felling on Longbury Hill Wood though the scope has been slightly reduced – the coppice area has been reduced to 0.16 ha from 1.3 ha originally applied for, and a screen is to be retained along the north and south boundaries.  The Forestry Commission provided a map of the forestry work and a response to issues raised with them.  Washington Parish Council have responded to the Forestry Commision (see here) so the Society does not consider that there is a need for it to also respond.

The planning application for the access road has also been granted and the decision notice can be read here.    A condition of note is that the access road and hard standing must be removed within 1 year of first use of the forestry access.

The Society believes that, on balance, a satisfactory result has been arrived at for all parties.