FIELD NOTES
APRIL 2002 continued....
ARTICLES
Deer in Hertfordshire Make the National News
Members may have seen the national BBC News item showing deer on Ashridge with a report by their correspondent and HNHS member, Sophie Allington. There is growing concern about the increase in deer numbers and their ecological impact in certain places.
Muntjac have a significant effect on wild flowers such as orchids and bluebells if their numbers build up to large concentrations in certain woods. Dr Arnold Cooke has published a number of papers on the browsing and grazing of deer (see "Impact of Manta Deer Muntiacus reevesi at Monks Wood National Nature Reserve, Cambridgeshire, Eastern England"; A.S. Cooke & L. Farrell; Institute of Chartered Foresters, 74: 3, 2001). He has also written about Chinese water deer Hydropotes inermis and there is a well illustrated guide available, jointly published by The Mammal Society and The British Deer Society, (1998).
Both species were introduced into this country by the Duke of Bedford from China early in the last century. He established the deer with many other varieties in the park at Woburn and they later escaped to colonise the surrounding countryside, including Hertfordshire.
Our two native species, the roe Capreolus capreolus and the red deer, Cervus elaphus are very rare in Hertfordshire and need conservation rather than management at present. There is one small wild herd of red deer resident and occasional vagrant stags appear, usually during the rut, but otherwise the species is extremely scarce. Roe appear to be re-colonising after a long absence, but it has been a very slow process.
The compatibility between roe and the now widespread muntjac is uncertain and may slow down their revival as a familiar Hertfordshire deer. Fallow deer, Dama dama were introduced by the Normans as a beast of the chase, although there is also some evidence of small introductions by the Romans, too. They are the most successful of the larger deer in the county and have a wide distribution across the central and north east of the county with a major herd in the Ashridge forest area.
They are already subject to local management on farms where their numbers have caused damage to crops, but the main control on all deer numbers at present is death or injury on the roads. There is a deer killed for every day of the year in the county (just as every third day a badger is run over). In reality, there are peaks and troughs for road accidents and some places have repeated crossing places that regularly mean accidents are likely to occur.
Nationally, about twelve people are killed annually as a result of collisions between deer and vehicles. Whilst we can mount mirrors at accident black spots , for example, where there is an abundance or concentration of deer on nature reserves, and where management by rifle is absent, to preserve the flora it is likely to be more and more common for our deer to be reduced by licensed stalkers. Herds increase by about a third each year and doe muntjac produce a fawn every seven months, so in the absence of wolves (if not big cats) management plans will need to take on this responsibility.
Michael Clark
A Wild Flower Emblem for Hertfordshire
To commemorate HM The Queen's Golden Jubilee, Plantlife is coordinating a project to "help each county choose its own individual wild flower emblem" (Plantlife. Spring 2002). Everyone has a chance to vote for their favourite or most evocative indigenous wild flower that most sums up and is an essential part of the character of their area. You can also vote for the flower that you consider does this best in any places you visit during 2002. The final decisions, based on popular choices, will be made by Plantlife's National Wildflower Committee.
Plantlife have published a suggested list, which for most counties includes a number of options. Only one plant, Dog's Mercury Mercurialis perennis, is listed for Hertfordshire. Other suggestions are included in an article by Germaine Greer (Telegraph Weekend. 16th February, 2002) who suggests the Wood Anemone Anemone nemorosa as appropriate for our county emblem.
What do members of the Society think? For details of the project and a simple means of voting use the Plantlife website www.plantlife.org.uk, otherwise contact County Flowers, Plantlife, 21, Elizabeth Street, London, SW1W 9RP enclosing a large (A4) sae with stamps to the value of £1-50p
Tom Gladwin
Page Nine
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