Forest Chief meets FORA members

Have you heard of 'virtual fencing', and how it might be used to bring back cattle to forest land nearer you? That was one intriquing question put by the Superintendent of Epping Forest, Mat Roberts, when he gave a talk to about 60 FORA members on November 7.

Mr Roberts is responsible for the management and conservation of the 8,000 acres of
the forest, the largest public open space in the London area.

It turns out that he and his staff have been looking at the idea of controlling the movement of cattle with equipment that can send GPS satellite signals to devices attached to the animals, so that they are made to stay in a specified area. In effect, they are kept inside the area by a 'virtual' fence.

He told the audience at St Andrew's church hall that there were 53 English Longhorn cattle contained by conventional barriers on grazing land in the North of the forest. He hoped grazing cattle could be reintroduced to Southern areas in the future because they were important to maintaining the forest's mosaic of habitats.

In answer to a question, he explained there were a number of reasons why cattle were removed from land near the FORA area some years ago, but the main one was the BSE outbreak.

Mr Roberts covered an exceptionally wide range of topics in the talk, which was entertaining as well as informative. He described the many and varied activities of people who used the forest, and highlighted threats to it such as damage to trees through air pollution.

Another fact, surprising to many, came out when he dealt with the sports held on forest land. He said a quarter of a million people played football on Wanstead Flats every year. It had 64 pitches, making it the second largest football playing area in Europe.

The talk was filmed by Stuart Monro for a local community group who are making a series of DVD's about Wanstead Park and its heritage, with the co-operation of the Corporation of London.