Work began today on fencing off one of Ardentinny’s favourite dog-walking areas. As announced by Forestry Commission Scotland at the last Community Council meeting, the ‘Nursery Field’ between Glenfinart Caravan Park and the beach path is to be leased for grazing.
News from the village of Ardentinny, Argyll, Scotland.
Look around the Glen Freda, you will find the same plants and wildlife all over it. That field was an F.C. tree nursery in the fifties, maybe even before that. When we came here in the 1960s it was in full production. After it closed in the mid 70s it was rented out for grazing during which time it was seeded with clover to improve grazing and if my memory serves me right, this ceased when the F.C. put a road through it to enable their vehicles to avoid using the riverside rd.
It has however been cut for Silage by a local farmer at fairly regular intervals . F.C. employees removed the ragwort a couple of years ago probably with a view to making it safe for leasing once again.
I realise you probably don’t know what has been happening in the field over the years but all that flora has either always been there or has seeded in from all around.
This is and always has been, an Agricultural/Forestry field (NOT a wildflower meadow) So while I don’t always see eye to eye with things the F.C. do in the area. I am in full agreement here.
It’s not only dog walkers but wildlife lovers who walk in the nursery fields. By July/Aug there are over fifty species of wild flowers in flower and it is alive with bees, butterflies, including the spectacular cinnabar moth, and other insects, birds and small invertebrates. I think the loss of such a rich and uncultivated meadow is a great pity. The wide paths mown through it in summer were a delight. I have a list of the 53 species made in co-operation with Plantlife. It will change radically when grazed and will possibly be treated with selective herbicides and nitrogen rich fertilisers – common practice on grazing land on surrounding farms.
Good to see the old nursery field being fenced of and put to good use
As to the dog walking no doubt there will be some gripes .But there are thousands of acres with good walks in the glen which is still available.
And while I’m on the subject of dog walking . While the majority of dog walkers are hopefully bagging the dog waste and disposing of it properly, a lot of it is left lying or has been bagged and left or is decorating the various bushes and trees along the way.
Do these people thing the law doesn’t apply to them ?