For the first time since its establishment as a butterfly reserve, Broadcroft Quarry on Portland has now got some help with the grass management.
One of our neighbours made the observation that she was buying hay for her ponies at the same time as Butterfly Conservation volunteers and contractors were busy brushcutting and removing grass adjacent to her paddock. This work is necessary to enhance the sward for the butterflies which use this site. Why couldn’t we use her ponies to do the job?
Discussions took place between Stone Firms, the owners of the land, the Portland Nature CIC and the Dorset branch of BC who carry out the management on the reserve and it was agreed that we should allow the ponies on for a trial run. An electric fence was installed on a corner of the site and the photo above shows the ponies enjoying their new area of fresh grass.
Don’t be daft! Horses don’t help! They destroy everything there. I’ve been documenting the insect life on Portland for the last 15 years. I can give u a list of everything that was in the fields out the bill before horses were allowed to literally change the ecosystem (at least 12 types of grasses grew there along with many wildflowers and now there is 2 grasses and daisies and buttercups. Nothing that helps the insects that WERE there.) compared to what’s there now. Everything lives around the edges making it look like they come from the horse field. Ridiculous.
Hi Wayne. Sorry for the delayed reply – we are all volunteers, so butterfly work has to be fitted in with everything else.
We are quite aware that pony paddocks generally tend to be hugely overgrazed and end up growing docks and often ragwort and very little else.
The Dorset branch of Butterfly Conservation uses conservation grazing ponies to manage its butterfly reserve at Alners Gorse in north Dorset and this is one of the best butterfly sites in Dorset. There the ponies have a large area to cover, they are taken off if there is any chance of damage to the ecosystem and we feel that this management has been a great success.
So it is not the ponies that are the problem, it is the way the land is managed with them. At Broadcroft the aim is to graze in large enclosures that are regularly moved and that after March they will come off for the spring and summer season. If the trial is not a success, we certainly won’t repeat it.
Thanks for caring.