THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE. James Adler & Rosie Rowe

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1 THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE James Adler & Rosie Rowe Introduction Imagine a vast wilderness of heather covered valleys and a system of crystal clear pools and streams overflowing with wildlife. A herd of red deer wade through lush mires, where grass whispers in the wind This isn t the Scottish highlands, or the North Yorkshire Moors, but how much of northwest Surrey would have looked in the 18 th Century. Today, the finest remnant of this stunning landscape is the Pirbright Range Danger Area (RDA) located only 25 miles from central London. Its heathlands still roll over nearly 1000 hectares of the county, but the red deer are now locally extinct. A place like this should be crawling with hikers, horse riders and dog walkers, but there is not a path, a single piece of rubbish or sign of human activity to be seen. It is truly Surrey s last wilderness and one of the best kept secrets of Southern England. It is a haven for wildlife in one of the most populous parts of the United Kingdom and is now the subject of a remarkable and groundbreaking conservation project. The RDA is a fundamental land resource for both the UK armed forces, as part of the Defence Training Estates Pirbright Range Complex, and the internationally famous National Shooting Centre at Bisley. It provides a safe area in the event of a rifle round overshooting the range butts and allows millions of small arms rounds to be fired per year within this busy part of Surrey. There is also one active grenade range. The land was bought by the government in 1877 and has remained undeveloped and little disturbed since that time. The public were allowed into the area until the 1970s, when a review banned access to the area due to the danger of unexploded ordnance and a 14km long security fence constructed. The lack of disturbance has created a thriving wildlife community albeit one threatened by a lack of management. The MOD and the National Rifle Association are jointly responsible for the condition of this special area and have entered into a special relationship with expert partner organisations for the conservation management of the area. Surrey Wildlife Trust has been given the lead on this project. Natural History Lowland European Heathland is at the heart of this wildlife value. This habitat exists only in a narrow climatic belt along the North Atlantic seaboard and is dependent on certain soils and altitude. Once a valuable pastoral resource, heathland gradually lost its economic importance during the industrial revolution. The UK lost 85% of its heath between 1850 and 1980, a far greater loss than that of tropical rainforest. All the remaining lowland heathland in England would fit on the Isle of Man and is recognised as being of international importance. Heathland s great value for wildlife is demonstrated by it supporting some of the UK s most charismatic and rare species. It is the only habitat to support all six British reptiles and is home to the best known native carnivorous plant; the sundew, which entices flies to its lethal embrace by glistening with fake dew drops. It has more species of dragonfly and damselfly than any other UK habitat and is home to what is claimed to be the fastest (size for size) land animal on earth, the Heath Tiger Beetle, which, if it were the same size as a Cheetah, would have no problem catching the Cheetah or dispatching it with its giant sickle shaped jaws. 1

2 The site enjoys a wide range of environmental protection. Under UK law it is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) whilst it also safeguarded by the European Designations: Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and SPA (Special Protection Area). These protections are for the undisturbed peat and wetland areas (SAC) and for three threatened heathland bird species which breed either on the ground or within the heather sward (SPA). This makes them vulnerable to disturbance from people and dogs; the RDA therefore provides the perfect sanctuary. The first of these birds is the Nightjar which is a nocturnal species that migrates into the UK from southern Africa to breed. It flies over the heath and has a mouth which opens extremely wide. This, combined with a funnel of feathers around its beak, channels small moths and mosquitoes into its gape like a basking shark. It has a bizarre churring call sounding like a stick caught in bicycle spokes. The next is the Woodlark which possesses one of the most beautiful of all UK bird calls and is not shy in showing this off, often hanging overhead belting out its lilting song. Finally there are nearly 100 Dartford Warbler pairs. In the hard winter of 1962/3 this tiny bird s national population crashed to 11 pairs as heavy snowfall prevented them feeding on small insects within the heather. Since then careful management and protection has pushed the UK numbers back to around 3,000 pairs. Management & Problems The RDA has not received any formal management since it was bought by the Ministry of Defence. On most heathland sites this would have resulted in a rapid transition from heath to scrub to woodland. The area has remained as such a special tract of heath due to large fires that have swept across the site. These have been started either by accident, acts of vandalism or by military pyrotechnics. In the past the site burnt regularly as the vegetation grew up and provided sufficient fuel. With the emergency services not being able to enter the area due to the risk of unexploded ordnance the fire would burn much of the site and would often last for days occasionally breaking out of the area to threaten local homes. This would keep the fire brigade camped around the perimeter fence for long periods of time. Obviously this created problems for the local people who had to evacuate their homes, for the emergency services who would find their resources stretched and for the shooters at Bisley and Pirbright who would not be able to train or fire. It also caused problems for the wildlife. Less mobile species would be incinerated whilst others that escaped found that their habitat had been destroyed. Consequently several decisions were made. The military ceased all use of tracer and phosphorous grenades. The fire brigade instituted a series of changes to their responses to heath fires and have been successful in stopping fires that start outside the RDA burning their way into it. Finally Defence Training Estates ordered a wider fire break on both sides of the fence and improved perimeter access and fire plans. All of these measures have helped reduce the incidence of fire and the disruption and damage it causes. Unfortunately just as large fires are a bad thing for wildlife on heaths so is a lack of fire when it is the only check on vegetation. The reduced incidence of fire within the RDA has led to a build up of biomass, which would give a future fire greater intensity, and encroachment by scrub and coarse grasses. These invaders overwhelm the more fragile, interesting and rarer species and reduce the biodiversity. On other sites heathland managers use a variety of methods to combat them including mowing, tree and scrub cutting, turf stripping and grazing using domestic livestock. Due to the access restrictions on the RDA none of these proven techniques have been possible. The international importance of the site meant there was never an option to do nothing as this would allow the site to turn into secondary woodland with a massive loss of species and landscape. What followed was the beginning of one of the most exciting conservation projects ever embarked upon in the UK. 2

3 Beginnings After observing some of the effects of deer grazing elsewhere on UK heathland, the idea of introducing a herd of large deer to the Pirbright RDA was born. Between 2005 and 2007 animal welfare meetings involving Defence Estates, Natural England, Defence Training Estates, Defence Deer Management 1, RSPCA, Defra, the Deer Initiative, consultant deer specialists, and Surrey Wildlife Trust (SWT) were held to discuss the project s feasibility. Natural England was keen to introduce stock into the area and looked to the partner organisations to consider this. A grazing licence between the MOD and SWT was signed in the summer of 2006 that allowed the Trust to graze animals on the Defence Training Estate in Surrey for habitat conservation. The creation of the SWT grazing project with specialist staff in 2007 and the green light from the Defra grazing animals welfare group, gave new impetus and direction to the Pirbright project. By October 2007 a working group had been set up with a group of core organisations whose task it would be to work out the details, organise any necessary works and manage the herd within the RDA. The partners were Defence Training Estates, Defence Estates, Defence Deer Management, Natural England, the Surrey Heathland Project, the Grazing Animals Project and Surrey Wildlife Trust. After a comprehensive series of meetings that discussed everything from stock type to biosecurity, from escapes to fire plans and from monitoring to management, it was agreed that the most appropriate species to introduce into the RDA were red deer and wild caught goats. A Natural England commissioned report recommended red deer be selected for their ability to eat the coarse grasses, rip up bracken and inhibit scrub growth. It was anticipated that the deer would have the greatest beneficial effects on the bog and mire systems. In addition to the deer, a non-breeding herd of wild caught goats were chosen for their remarkable ability to control scrub. Previous experiments had been carried out by the Surrey Heathland Project within the nearby Ash ranges complex where goats had halted scrub succession. They were even seen climbing small saplings to get to the lushest growth. The animals would be obtained from native British stock that had been living wild for over 150 years. With the stock types carefully chosen the project could start to move towards implementation. Project Development and Funding Once the grazing licence was in place, SWT was eligible to apply for the Government s Higher Level Stewardship funding (HLS), the aim of which is to deliver significant environmental benefits in high priority areas. An HLS application was submitted to Natural England and was successful in its bid for funds. This funding pooled together with a budget from Defence Estates and SWT provided sufficient resources to get the project off the ground. The first and most obvious issue to overcome was that of fencing. The RDA is surrounded by an 1.8m high chain link fence topped with a razor wire coil. Whilst this was meant to be a deterrent to people entering the area it was never intended to be a stock proof barrier. The working group visited deer parks including Richmond Park to see how best they might contain red and other large deer species at Pirbright. Deer specialists Dr Jochen Langbein and Neil Brooks provided their expert advice on how best to adapt the existing fence. The works required included: 1 The Services Branch of the British Deer Society 3

4 Building 5.1km of new Tornado wire, solid knot deer fencing. This was to fence off the range floors and create holding paddocks and fire refuges. Installation of 5 deer grids in regularly used access points. Installation of 20 culverts in stream and ditch exits from the RDA. Installation of 45 badger gates. 11km of ground proofing to the existing security fence. This involved the adding of weld mesh to secure between the ground level and the chainlink. 5km of raising the razor wire coil to ensure that stags would not entangle their antlers. By the end of June 2008 the required work contracts were let. The MOD s Environmental Support Group surveyed the new fencelines for unexploded ordnance and Landmarc Support Services (the MOD s civilian contractor) cleared the vegetation. At the time of writing all the new deer fencing is in place, the ground proofing has been completed as has the culvert installation and badger gates. The razor wire coil is finished and the deer grids are being installed. Completion of the enclosure is scheduled for February The Future The project to install infrastructure to allow the new animals to be introduced is nearing completion. The deer will be introduced first. The initial deer herd of thirty hinds and ten stags (with an appropriate age structure) is anticipated for Once the herds have been introduced to the area they will be under constant remote surveillance. The animals impacts will be studied by monitoring the site s flora and fauna and the herd will be managed in response to these factors along with direct observation of the condition of the animals. This is one of the things that make the project so unique; the animals are on site as conservation grazing tools rather than as trophy or meat stock and animal welfare remains of the highest importance. Defence Deer Management will manage the stock purchased by SWT in accordance with a mutually agreed management plan. Additional zones have been identified as supplementary feeding points and as areas where the animals may be actively managed. The herd movement patterns will be tracked using Global Positioning System (GPS) collars on certain individual animals. The collars will take a GPS fix every hour and send that information via a mobile phone text message to the computer system at SWT s Pirbright HQ. This data will be analysed using the Trust s Geographical Information Systems and will allow SWT to monitor how the animals will use the site. This is a unique opportunity to monitor the animals movement and dispersal patterns, behaviour, feeding habits and response to seasons and stimuli. Further plans are being considered to undertake a yearly census of the animal population by helicopter mounted thermal imaging equipment. This will allow a complete head count (dependent on cover height) to be determined. It may also identify the sex ratio, but this would be dependent upon ambient thermal conditions and the optical or digital magnification of the thermal camera. From the outset, Defence Deer Management will have a vital role to play in the professional advice on and management of the herds and the partner organisations are reliant on their expertise for the success of the project. Conclusions With help from native livestock, it is hoped that this pioneer project will safeguard one of the last wildernesses of southern England. Following years of careful planning, the project team 4

5 has done all it can to ensure that animal welfare, sustainability principles and agreed best practice lie at its heart. A number of unknown s' may be encountered along the way. These will be analysed, recorded and managed as necessary. In addition, the information and knowledge gained will be made widely available to provide a useful evidence base for other land managers facing similarly difficult issues. We are immensely proud that the partners have worked together to face this unique challenge. Folders of risk assessments, plans and minutes of meetings reveal the industry that 21 st Century conservation has become. All of it has been vital in uniting a range of organisations behind the project. Very soon the sound of the wind whistling through the grassy mires of Pirbright will be joined once again by the roar of red stags in the rut. The sound will not only reflect an age when these animals roamed naturally across the Surrey heaths, but it will be testament to the great lengths gone to in order to conserve and enhance this very special area and its wildlife. James Adler Grazing Manager, Surrey Wildlife Trust Rosie Rowe Defence Estates Deer Operations Manager This article appeared in the spring 2009 edition of Deer magazine. This is the journal of the British Deer Society. It has been updated by the author. 5