Agenda item

The Superintendent of Burnham Beeches & Stoke Common to be heard.

The Chairman of the Committee thanked the Superintendent for hosting the visit to Dorneywood and tour of Burnham Beeches. The Superintendent of Burnham Beeches and Stoke Common provided the following update to the Committee:

The Cattle at Burnham Beeches continued to graze within the Park Lane invisible fence are until mid-September.  They are now grazing land at Hedgerley and village ‘Lookers’ are carrying out daily checks and reporting issues to the BB Office as they arise. 

The Exmoor Ponies continued to graze on Burnham Beeches following their recent dental and feet checks.  They would move to land owned by the Teikyo School near Slough as food availability dictates.

The cattle at Stoke Common had now been taken from the site having completed 2750 grazing days on the site in 2013.  This was within the agreed range to ensure an appropriate balance between the needs of conservation and farming.

Halo and clearance works had started at Burnham Beeches in preparation for the coming winter’s pollard restoration programme.

Contractors recently cleared 1.25 Ha of secondary woodland at Stoke Common as part of year 6 of the restoration programme.  Staff and volunteers would continue to carry out smaller scale works over the winter months.

Many events had recently been held on the sites including:

• A Rotary Club sponsored event, a week-long Halloween trail, an ‘On location’ walk and 5 ‘Simply Health’ walks.
• 500 students ranging from primary age to MSc students made educational visits to the Beeches and Stoke Common.
• Volunteers contributed 1300 hours to work at the sites in September and October.  A wide range of task was completed and the conservation and administration volunteers in particular are proving to be a growth area. 

Several visits had also taken place at Burnham Beeches over the period including

• a visit by the City Commons Consultation Group to inspect the invisible fencing project.
• the pollarding of a tree by Sheriff Waddingham followed by lunch at Dorney Wood.
• A guided tour of the site for the Worshipful Company of Marketors.
• A work shadow day for staff from the Nene Park Trust.

In relation to the recent storm, Officers informed the Committee that Burnham Beeches suffered relatively lightly from the recent high winds.  The site was closed during the worst of the weather and reopened and checked according to the site policy.  2 beech pollards are known to have been felled and around 20 maiden trees.  Many limbs were lost and work to bring down hung up branches and tress completed in the high and medium priority areas and some issues remain in low risk areas and will be tackled as resources allow.