Communications and military training

Hello everyone,

Firstly I would like to apologise for what has been perceived as a lack of communicate with respect to the livestock which you all looker for us.  This time of year is always the time of year we have to re-shuffle our herd to make way for new calves and position females in groups who we are putting to the bull.  Historically this has never affected the herd on Bramshot Heath so things have never changed for you, however, this year we were informed by our grazing team that these changes were required a few weeks back and failed to pass on the advanced notice.  You have my apologies for this.

The grazing team did blog as soon as the move occurred which is what we ask of them.

Lola was left on site as she is so calm and good with the level of people and dogs on site so she will act a similar a perfect Matriarch (surrogate mother) to the new ones whilst they settle in.  The new ones will be nervous and s kitty to start with as it is a new site for them but this will soon settle down, and will do so quicker with the aid of Lola.

In terms of the military training, as you are all aware the area is owned by the MOd for the sole purpose of training.  In the past this site has seen little if any training as the vegetation conditions were not suitable.  One would think this would be a good thing but I think to the contrary.  Without the land actively being used for training, and because it is not a legally protected piece of land, it was at serious risk of being sold off for development or housing.  With works that have taken place making it more suitable for training we are now seeing soldiers and cadets using it regularly.  This activity will ensure the army are not forced to sell it off by the Ministers within the MoD.  By being able to keep it and train on it, it ensures we can continue to manage it for wildlife and see the results that's we are, which are all positive.

To put it into context the land directly to the east of Bramshot Heath, in between the road to pyestock and kennels lane, is owned by the mod, not used by the mod and is being sold to the developers as I type this.  This is exactly what would have happened to Bramshot Heath!

As a result of this support for military training it is with an element of accepted reluctance that's we have to allow our livestock to adapt to the trainings that takes place on the site and this will vary from site to site.  The livestock are very robust and adaptive.  What I woudl say is this is more than likely unfortunate timing.  In terms of the military not being able to train as new cattle were added this is not an option.  Military training takes priority in all occasions and we are not informed of their activities for security reasons.  These things will never change and are part and parcel of managing the MOD estate.

I hope that's this blog post is taken as the apology it I see meant to be as well as informing all readers about the relationship that we have with the MOD and their activities.  If any of you have further question should please email me directly on Elliott.fairs@hiwwt.org.uk

Many thanks all

Elliott