You are not the only one Anne, I went for a walk over Hainault Forest Country Park, I entered via the entrance opposite the Old Hainault Oak public house site (now demolished and turned into flats), the first thing I was met with was hundreds of plastic carrier bags strewn about amongst bare trees.
There were far too many for me to start clearing up, so I took a photograph, but I did notice a Redbridge Planning Sign stapled to a bin stating that someone had requested that more people be allowed to meet over at Hainault Forest Country Park, at any one time.
The notice said that the council had received a request to increase the maximum number of people meeting at Hainault Forest Country Park from 2999 to 9999 and if anybody objected to make representations within 28 days of the notice (Dated October 07)
If the council cannot cope with the rubbish I saw in the trees with 2999 people attending any one event, how will they cope with near 10,000 people attending?
The rubbish left to blow in the trees is unacceptable, the lake has seen some tree work, but many branches and logs are still in the water, with the bird feeding rail reintroduced, and the floating rusting bird 'pontoons' still in the lake, despite known problems with encouraging the feeding of birds that has allowed the Canada Geese to become a serious pest.
News release
Wednesday 30 August 2006
Please do not feed the birds in Epping Forest
The City of London, the conservator of Epping Forest, is today asking visitors to stop feeding birds on all of the ponds throughout the Forest.
Over 40 waterfowl (swans, ducks and geese) have died at Eagle Pond in Snaresbrook in the last week alone. The cause of death is confirmed by Animal Rescue organisations to be poisoning, due to food in the water.
Kevin Garten from The Swan Sanctuary said: “A fantastic amount of discarded food is being put into the ponds and this is extremely harmful to the waterfowl, resulting in poisoning and death of the birds.”
The feeding of birds, particularly people leaving large quantities of waste food, throughout Epping Forest is highly detrimental to both the health of the birds and the local landscape. Discarded food also encourages vermin, which causes problems for residents who live near to Forest land.
Epping Forest Superintendent, Mat Roberts, said: “The problem experienced at Eagle Pond last week is not isolated and we would urge people to stop feeding the birds at all of the ponds throughout Epping Forest.”
A classic case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing? or someone in the parks department listening to outdated bird conservation practices?
The message is clear DO NOT FEED THE BIRDS it is not in the birds interests (bad diet, poor health, death) and it is not in our interests, (bird excrement, lake banks erroded, a health hazzard)
Hopefully the conservationists will implement latest good practice, maintaining the trees, both on the banks and the island and bringing the lake banks back to their former glory.
