Part of the former golf course, Allestree Park, Summer 2022, showing the proliferation of meadow buttercups, following the ending of the intense mowing it was previously subjected to. Rewilding is underway!
Photo by Bill Grange
March 2023
The rewilding process over the former golf course is underway with the much-reduced mowing of the area. Longer grass has given it all a less formal look; during the summer of 2022 the coppery-pink grass stems swaying in the breeze looked wonderful. Wild flowers are beginning to appear in the grassland, and insect life is moving in, including Meadow Brown and Skipper butterflies, bees, small moths, and grasshoppers. To allow easier access, the fairway centre swathes are mown shorter.
Work is ongoing to plan the way forward. Surveys are being carried out to determine what species are present and how habitats like grassland, wetland and woodland can be improved and created, while maintaining good public access and enjoyment of the park. Community involvement will be really important, with events and volunteering opportunities. Members of the FoAP committee, and of the Earl of Harrington Angling club, were invited to join subcommittees with the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust and Derby City Council, to share our ideas and knowledge of the park. In these we have tried to represent the broad spectrum of park users’ interests. Now that the subcommittees have met, a draft management plan is to be drawn up by an independent body, based on all the information fed in, and we are promised there will be consultation on this plan during the summer.
The recent work that was started, in preparation for a fence route around the park prior to cattle grazing, was sprung on us all with a minimum of prior warning, and set off such a public outcry that it has been paused. Objections were raised, including by ourselves, about the extension of cattle in the park, access problems with a fence surrounding the park (albeit with plenty of gates planned), and the haste and lack of consultation.
Long term, grassland needs to be controlled by some means, to prevent it turning to scrub and, ultimately, mostly tree cover, which would impinge on the vistas that the consultation identified the public want maintaining. Neither would this make for the best range of wildlife habitats. Occasional mowing is one answer, and so is grazing, intended to mimic the action of large herbivores which would have once roamed in the country.
The plan was to use ‘GPS pulse grazing’ on the former golf course. This method has been used elsewhere, though not much in this country. Cattle wear an electronic collar round their necks, and areas in which they are allowed to graze are set using an app, forming an invisible 'fence'. They are trained beforehand to react to a sound emitted by the collar if they approach the edge of the area, this increases as they get to the boundary. If they start to cross the boundary they get a small electric shock - but not, we are told, as strong as that from an electric fence. In the unlikely event that they are spooked and cross out of the area, they can return without getting a shock. But in the (hopefully very unlikely) event of the system failing for one reason or another, a perimeter post and wire fence would be needed as a backup. The cattle would pulse graze small areas at a time and then move on to the next area when their job is done – so they would not be roaming across the whole park at any one time.
There are advantages in using cattle for this purpose: it will keep the grass sward short but not uniform, making different micro habitats for a variety of plants and small creatures, some bare areas of ground would be formed, again forming different habitats, and all with minimal use of fossil fuels. And there are disadvantages in a public park: although a very docile breed and would not have calves in the park, they are big animals, some people will want to avoid them; dogs could disturb them and the cows could possibly become aggressive, although this hasn’t been a problem in the currently grazed areas; and yes, there will be cow pats (which will dissipate in time, with the action of weather and insects)!
However, we are assured that cattle grazing, and backup fence, will not happen in the near future and not without further public engagement; the plan is to take a ‘wait and see’ approach, leaving the grass as it is for at least a year or two, with very occasional mowing of fairway centres and pathways .
Meanwhile, we look forward to spring and summer, and to continuing to enjoy our beautiful, accessible and even more biodiverse park.