Projects > Staunton Meend

Installation of two new cattle grids

Posted: 9th October 2010

Funding: £9,492
Scheme Type: Normal Grants
Project Type: Wildlife & Environmental Projects
Area: Forest of Dean District Council

Staunton Meend, Staunton, Gloucestershire, GL16 8PD

Two new cattle grids have been installed on Staunton Meend to try and encourage new grazing on the land and revive the wildlife.

Funded by The Gloucestershire Environmental Trust and the Wye Valley AONB Sustainable Development Fund, the two cattle grids will complete the Meend enclosure.

The land, also known as Buckstone Common, hasn't been grazed on for more than 35 years and this helped to maintain an acid grassland and heath land habitat. Once the grazing stopped, rowan and bracken invaded the land and the wildlife disappeared. The site was then identified as an opportunity in the county Biodiversity Action Plan.

A community project was set up in 2003 to restore the 13 hectares of site and the bracken was removed to reveal the mineral base. The boundaries of the site were secured for grazing, heather seeds distributed, trees and saplings removed and the bracken controlled. Natural England also recognised the site's potential with an HLS grant.

Exmoor ponies are on loan from the Moorland Mousie Trust to try conservation grazing and remove the sward and bracken.

The maintenance of walls, seed distribution and birch sapling removal will continue.

Website: www.wyevalleyaonb.org.uk