Your questions answered about
the impact of people
on the Exmoor landscape.
"..the vast spaciousness of Dunkery ...the enclosed loveliness of (Hanny) combe.."
S.H.Burton
"Exmoor... still retains a feeling of wildness and remoteness...."
Rachel Thomas
Introduction
People see Exmoor in many different ways but most appreciate it for its wide open spaces, its beautiful scenery and its tranquillity. Visiting Exmoor gives people the opportunity to find some 'space' and a chance to re-charge batteries in today's hectic and stressful life. But what most people Still do not realise is that the Exmoor landscape is fragile and that if a careful balance is not maintained that landscape may disappear.
Activities in the countryside
The statutory purposes of the National Park Authority (NPA) are to conserve and enhance the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage of Exmoor and to promote opportunities for the understanding and enjoyment of the special qualities of those areas by the public. The NPA therefore does its best to encourage quiet recreation and traditional pursuits in order to maintain Exmoor’s special landscape with its special habitats. But even quiet and traditional activities like horse-riding can have a deleterious effect on the countryside and where such activities damage the landscape then die conservation of the area must come first.
The impact of human beings
Human beings have been altering Exmoor by their everyday activities from the start.
Exmoor was once heavily wooded. Trees have been cut down to build shelters and fences and to provide fuel
- Sheep, cattle and ponies have been grazed on the moor preventing any resurgence of woodland
- large areas have been ploughed and enclosed destroying heather and grass moorland and replacing it with farmland
All human activity has some impact on the moor and the activities of visitors have to be seen against the wider overall impact of all human activity.
The impact of visitors depends on:
- the number of people who visit
- the fact that visitors often tend to do the same things in the same places e.g. drive to 'honeypots' like Tarr Steps and Selworthy, climb Dunkery Beacon or go to Lymnouth for a cream tea.
- the fact that visitors are often not used to country life and do not understand that they are causing damage or disturbance by making a noise or trampling through the undergrowth.
Fires
One very real danger on Exmoor is that of fire. Half extinguished cigarettes and matches can start fires on open moorland and in woodland that can quickly result in destruction of vegetation, habitat and even wildlife itself.
Monitoring disturbance
In order to understand and lessen the impact of too many people on the moor disturbance needs to be monitored but little has been done so far because the pressures have not been great. Dr Sue Baker in her study of the Exmoor Pony, Survival of the Fittest, describes disturbance to ponies by riders and also how ponies have adapted to keeping away from certain busy areas during tourism hours.
Access
One of the ways of limiting the impact of visitors is to limit access. For example, Somerset County Council tries to limit the number of people visiting the nearby Quantock Hills by restricting advertising. On the Somerset Wetlands many special habitats are protected by specific access limitations because they are designated nature reserves. On Exmoor there is open access to the moorland and an extensive network of rights of way. Interpretative material recommends preferred routes which are robust and generally able to withstand the pressure of feet.
Erosion
Even though Exmoor does not have the same number of visitors as some of the other national parks which are close to large towns and conurbations and so does not experience the same pressures there are still problems caused by over-use.
One of the most common is that of erosion. There are many ways of causing erosion but in every case it results in the destruction of vegetation and the breaking up of the surface of the moor and particularly footpaths and bridleways. Erosion can be measured in several different ways, for example by a study of vegetational change on and beside a path, though for practical purposes it is often simply measured by eye. The Park Rangers keep a look out for damage and report back to the Head Ranger who will then take appropriate action. If damage is slight, repair work will be carried out by the Park estate workers but if it is extensive then more drastic remedies may have to be taken as with the heavily eroded tracks on Dunkery Beacon.
The Dunkery Project
The Dunkery Project is a three year experimental management programme, jointly funded by the NPA and the National Trust and designed to repair seriously eroded paths in the Dunkery area. The area is a part of the National Trust's Holnicote Estate, it has been designated an SSSI and part has been designated a National Nature Reserve.
Within the area are some 30 km of routes used by the public although the whole of the unenclosed moorland has open access on foot. Dunkery Beacon at 519 metres is the highest point on Exmoor and attracts many riders and walkers. The problem arises from the area's popularity with horse riders. A horse's hoof has 19 times the ground pressure of a walker's foot and so a horse has 38 times the impact of a walker. Many of the Dunkery paths are used by up to 100 horses a day providing a daily surface pressure equivalent to that of 3800 walkers. Once the surface of the ground has been broken up water aggravates the problem.
These pressures have had a significant impact on the path network. Within a five year period some of the worst paths have grown from 0.5 metre wide sheep tracks to deeply gullied erosion scars up to 5 metres wide.
The Dunkery Project aims to develop repair techniques needed to resolve the problems of erosion through overuse by horses. Appropriate methods using natural materials are being examined, tested and implemented with the ultimate intention of using them throughout the Park to achieve a well managed network of paths based on sustainable carrying capacity principles.
Compared to the scale of erosion problems in other national parks those on Exmoor are small but this project has been important in highlighting the scale of erosion on Dunkery.
The work undertaken on Dunkery forms part of a wider National Trust strategy for visitor management in the area. Most visitors arrive by motor car and park either in the large car park at Webber's Post or small informal roadside lay-by parks accommodating from one to ten vehicles. Careful siting of these pull-ins has allowed the Trust to exert some influence on the use of existing footpaths by channelling visitors onto preferred routes while information panels and walks leaflets reinforce these recommendations.
West Anstey Common
At West Anstey Common on the southern edge of the Park, the problem of erosion has not been caused simply by visitors. Six commoners and twelve graziers have the right to graze stock on the area throughout the year. The Hunt use the area which means hunt followers in vehicles as well as riders, and there are several local riding stables which regularly take parties of visiting riders across the Common. The Common, 304.135 hectares of Calluna heathland, has been designated an SSSI.
In the last twenty years there has been a dramatic change in vegetation with loss of heath and upland grass moor being replaced by blanket peat grass moor, bracken and scrub. There has also been a drastic increase in track erosion due to increased recreational use. Use by tanks during the second world war, beetle damage, burning and over-grazing by Commoners have all contributed to the problems. Atmospheric pollution may also be contributing to loss of heather moorland. There are several possible solutions to the problem.
- East-west tracks could be formalised and dedicated as rights-of-way while some of the north -south bridleways could be stopped up. This would allow the improvement of the existing routes to a sustainable standard while removing pressure from the rest of the moorland. This would have to be initiated by the NPA and agreed by local landowners and parish councils.The
- NPA could act as co-ordinator in a conservation project designed to encourage heather regeneration.
See Resource list for further details and maps.
Agricultural Damage to Moorland
Grazing of moorland is essential if the character of the moor is to be maintained but numbers of livestock need to be carefully controlled or the vegetation can be changed or destroyed. Over-grazing over a number of years can gradually remove the heathland species: ling, bell-heather and whortleberry and change these areas to grassland. Cattle have greater impact than sheep and breeds of both that have been introduced have greater impact than native breeds.
Examples of over-grazing can be seen on South Hill and Winsford Allotment. Both areas are now in the restoration tier of the Environmentally Sensitive Area with very low stocking rates and no animals in winter and the heather is beginning to increase again.
Between these two areas lies Draydon Knap, part of Winsford Hill; here cattle numbers wintering on the common have been increasing over the last 50 years. Formerly the few animals were only fed hay in bad weather. Recently over 90 cows were wintered on the hill and were fed round bales of silage. The effect of this was to concentrate all the animals around the feeders causing poaching (breaking up of the soil) while the dung and uneaten silage enriched the soil making it quite unsuitable for heathland plants which prefer a poor soil. Tracks developed where tractors crossed the moor to bring in the food.
The problem has been solved on this and several other sites by imposing environmental conditions on grants given to farmers based on numbers of stock (headage payments). At the same time the ESA scheme offered financial incentives to farmers to remove their cattle from the moor in winter.
Before this the National Park had a two year agreement with the owner and his tenant not to winter graze this area. After four years with no winter feeding the area is beginning to recover. It waits to be seen whether the changes that have taken place to the soil are such as to prevent heathland species recognising the hare ground.
Burning can also lead to erosion and controlled burning or swaling is probably more frequent than in past centuries.
Drapers Way
Every year for two or three weeks in early Spring a wooded valley near Wheddon Cross is densely carpeted with snowdrops. Once the word gets out that the snowdrops are in bloom - and it is often mentioned by the local media - thousands of people flock to the valley to see the snowdrops. The valley is approached by a narrow single-track road with passing places, in one direction down a long, steep hill. The only places to park are the verges and the passing places.
The results are predictable:
- the road quickly becomes blocked with people reversing and trying to get by where cars are parked in passing places
- people get cross. They often can't park so cannot walk up the valley to see the flowers and their whole expedition is ruined
- cars parked and passing gradually destroy the verges and even the edges of the road surface itself
- increasing numbers of visitors are leading to erosion of paths, particularly as visits are at a wet time of year
There are several possible solutions to this situation which the Park Authority are considering. For example:
- the approach road might be made one-way during the busy afternoons and week-ends when the snowdrops are in bloom
- a park and ride scheme might be operated during the busy period, the approach road being closed to all save local traffic and the park and ride buses
Whatever action is taken it can only be carried out with the support of local people whom it may inconvenience. If the road is only one way some local traffic would have to travel several miles extra during the hours when the scheme was in operation and this could prove time consuming and costly for individuals and particularly farmers.
Idea for study
Agree a path or bridleway with the National Park Authority and make a study of its condition. Monitor regularly.
Resources available from Exmoor House
Please address requests in the first instance to:
the Education Officer, Exmoor National Park Department, Exmoor House, Dulverton. TA22 9HL
- Exmoor National Park Plan 1991-1996 and Exmoor National Park Local Plan 1994 set out the Park policies relating to conservation. Photocopies of appropriate pages are available on request
- list of environmental material held at Exmoor House
- More detailed notes on the Dunkery Project, West Anstey study, Drapers Way survey results
Resources available from elsewhere
- Tourism in National Parks a guide to good practice, available from the Countryside Commission, John Dower House, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL50 3RA
- The National Trust, Holnicote Estate, Selworthy, Minehead, Somerset. TA24 8TJ
Can provide information relevant to tourism on countryside Interpretation, Coastal management, Ancient Woodland management, Moorland management, Vernacular buildings and Archaeology - Sue Baker, Survival of the Fittest, Exmoor Books 1993. pp.133-139