News Item (31-10-2008)

£7,000 SECURED: SHEEP TO BE RE-INTRODUCED TO TIGER HILL IN BID TO RESTORE HEATHLAND

Thanks to £7,000 worth of funding from Biffaward - a multi-million pound environment fund, and Suffolk County Council, important heathland at Tiger Hill Local Nature Reserve near Bures will benefit from a new regime of sustainable management.

Fencing to allow the introduction of sheep to graze the heathland and the removal of invasive oaks will be carried out this winter.  This work will restore a rare habitat, so valued for its botanical composition and will contribute to the Biodiversity Action Plan for Suffolk.

The Suffolk Biodiversity Partnership and Rural Action East assisted with the grant application to Biffaward - the fund which awards grants to community and environmental projects across the UK using money from landfill tax credits donated by Biffa Waste Services. 

This project will be co-ordinated by the Dedham Vale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Stour Valley Project in liaison with Nick Miller, landowner and warden for the site and Suffolk County Council's Senior Ecologist Sue Hooton.

Neil Catchpole, Landscape and Biodiversity Officer for the Dedham Vale AONB and Stour Valley Project said, "The project has the support of the Local Nature Reserve Committee and Natural England's consent as the heathland is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest.  The fencing will be erected sympathetically to safeguard the features of archaeological interest and to maintain public access to the site.  Our volunteer practical conservation team will be helping to lay a water pipe to provide a supply of drinking water to the livestock.  In line with all of the projects we undertake, we aim to support the local economy and as such the  fencing and tree surgery works will be carried out by local skilled contractors".

Sue Hooton added: "Grazing is the ideal type of sustainable management to enhance the conservation value of this Local Nature Reserve.  Over time, the special qualities of this habitat have become depleted as a result of non-grazing and the overshadowing caused to the heathland by more invasive species.  Tiger Hill is open to the public at all times by arrangement and group visits for educational purposes are particularly welcomed."  For further information about visiting Tiger Hill, you can contact the warden, Nick Miller on 01787 227359.

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