Many readers will have walked the Avon Valley path, a beautiful part of the world with the quite different but nevertheless interdependent landscapes of the New Forest on one side and the Avon Valley the other. The landscape of the Avon Valley is very largely man made. It is the result of an annual farming regime stretching back to medieval England. The maintenance of the meadows for grazing and winter fodder (both vital for the livestock de-pastured on the Forest) that has led to it being given the highest designations for protected wildlife habitat and it is ideal for wading and ground nesting birds once the winter floods have subsided. However if the farming routine is disturbed by summer flooding, then the whole system gets out of kilter ruining both the farming and the wildlife habitats. It is for this reason that weed cutting in the River Avon, as a means of flow control to prevent flooding, has been an integral part of the maintenance of the landscape since the middle ages. The weeds have been cut by municipal councils, prisoners from the Napoleonic wars, prisoners from the second world war, the National Rivers Authority, and most recently the Environment Agency.
The result of all this effort is the magnificent water meadows with a greater range of flora and fauna than any other chalk river in Britain. Our meadows have won prizes for being the best in the country. The large expanses of unimproved grassland managed as hay meadows, are home to many wading and ground nesting birds including the rarest species, such as the gadwall, the northern pintail and the black tailed godwit. This is all because the grasslands are able to be grazed after they have drained sufficiently following the winter flooding and that only happens when the weeds have been cut at the right time. It is a landscape in harmony: the farmers get their grazing and winter fodder and the birds and bees get the ideal habitat.
Over the last decade or so, many walkers will have noticed that this beautiful landscape has been declining. Areas of previously productive water meadows have become unsightly and derelict, just a mass of rushes and brambles. With this decline, many of the waders and ground nesting birds have gone too: their nests washed away in the floods and their young drowned. The grasses, wild flowers and vetches have given way to rushes. This noticeable decline is a consequence of a change in the weed cutting regime which has left the water meadows to flood in late spring and summer, destroying the ground nesting habitat and preventing grazing which produces the right environment for the following year. The farmers maintain that the Environment Agency has not cut the weed on time. In the very wet year of 1998, they didn’t cut it all and that is when most of the damage to the landscape occurred. Now the Environment Agency has decided to stop the weed cutting altogether. This decision has been taken without any assessment being made of the effect that it will have on farmers’ incomes.
If we take just one farmer who has 160 acres of riverine meadows relying on it for winter fodder and late season grazing, hay and silage, in a good year he would get ten half tonne bales per acre valued at, say, just short of £50,000. In a mediocre year, he might get about half that. In a wet year he would get nothing at all and have to buy in the winter fodder when prices would be high, costing him anything up to £50,000 to feed his livestock. In addition, he would have to pay to find somewhere else to graze the livestock that would otherwise have been on the flood plain. This is the impact of a poor weed cutting regime on just one farmer, set against a cost for weed cutting in the entire Avon Valley estimated at between £80,000 and £120,000 per year. The Avon Valley and the New Forest rely on one another. The meadows provide the summer grazing and the winter fodder for livestock on local farms and back-up feed for ponies and cattle normally de-pastured on the Forest. If the Avon Valley ceases to produce the winter fodder and grazing, then the livestock de-pastured on the Forest will tend to be sold in order to avoid the need to buy in expensive fodder. The reduction in livestock on the Forest will then in turn change quite dramatically that landscape as the lawns disappear.
For Months I have been pursuing this issue with parliamentary questions and this week a meeting with the Secretary of State, Hilary Benn and representatives of the farmers. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, there was no meeting of minds The Environment Agency believes that weed cutting is not a cost effective means of flood control and English Nature do not believe that discontinuing the weed cutting will adversely affect the quality of the protected habitats. It remains my contention that the failure to cut the weed effectively in recent years has firstly, wrecked the habitat by turning meadows into wastelands, drowning and washing away ground nesting birds. Second, it has destroyed the productive capacity of the agricultural land. So, the damage is two-fold: we are losing both the farming and the wildlife.
The only progress we did make was on the question of allowing someone else to cut the weed now that the Environment Agency has decided not to. Previously, Natural England had indicated that they would not allow private enterprise to cut the weed but it became clear at the meeting that this position has changed. We will now have to see if the agricultural community and any other interested parties such as municipalities or local authorities can come together in some collective action to fund and carry out the weed cutting. If this cannot be achieved, then the Avon Valley will become an unproductive eyesore when only a few years ago it boasted the best water meadows in the kingdom. Then who will want to walk the Avon Valley path? |
