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This
was a site inspection, alongside officers from English
Nature. There were countless seedling plants appearing,
on ant-hills & areas of flat, in semi-wooded parkland,
over-grazed all the year round by numerous small deer.
We
made a count of rosettes in badly infested 25 sq metre
area, and found over 200 plants. Added to the fact that
many seedlings were sprouting on grassy anthills (protected
by biologists & ecologists), this high count made
rosette extraction by a L-D workforce seem too expensive,
too long-term. The seedlings on the anthills would need
pricking out, using a small tool.
This
decision not to extract plants individually was made despite
the fact that the National Trust had been annually pulling
a 50 acre area immediately surrounding Knowle House, and
had succeeded in getting very good control. There
was an unmistakeable line where annual pulling stopped
(where National Trust responsibility ended).
Suggestions
that fencing after clearances of modest but badly affected
areas, to be increased year on year, didn’t seem acceptable
to E.N. They wanted to try chemical & weed-wiping.
(Contact: Anna Gundry, English Nature).
