News from the New Forest Trust
Mothing Kits for Young Explorers Club
The Trust has been very pleased to fund the purchase of two mothing kits (including moth traps, ID books, specimen pots, egg trays, and safety glasses) that will be available for the Wild New Forest Young Explorers to borrow.
Marcus Ward of WNF says “Mothing is one of the most popular activities at our wildlife camps, but the cost of equipment can often be a barrier. Moths are vital indicators of biodiversity, making this a fantastic skill for the next generation of naturalists to explore. All records collected using the kits will be submitted for conservation use. Thanks again to The New Forest Trust for making this possible!”
See link below for further details of the Young Explorers Club:
https://www.wildnewforestguidedtours.co.uk/wildlife-explorers
Bag it – Bin it
New for 2025, the Trust is joining forces with the Verderers, the New Forest National Park Authority and Forestry England to support “Bag it – Bin it”, a major campaign to encourage responsible dog ownership and asking those who don’t already, to pick up poo.
“We believe most dog owners are responsible, and part of that is picking up their poo,” says Oliver Crosthwaite-Eyre, former Chairman of the National Park, who chairs the special dog action group. “But a lot of owners don’t and you only have to look around car parks to see the piles of disgusting poo. It’s a health risk, it harms the forest, and can affect the enjoyment of many people. The answer is so simple – pick up poo, bag it, and bin it.”
The campaign will include posters in places used by dog owners such as vets’ surgeries and traders; leaflets to be given out to forest users; special displays to be used at shows and forest car park events; and the purchase of 6000 bags to give away.
“One of the myths we’d like to dispel is that of the poo fairy,” says Heather Gould, Co-Chair of the New Forest Dog Owners Group. “Why some people do the right thing and bag their dog’s poo, but then hang it in a bushor a tree, is beyond us. Please, bag poo, and take it to a bin, either in a car park or at home where it can go in the general waste.”
A further reason for the campaign is to counter the risk of disease. Several diseases can be passed to humans through dog poo, such as Toxicara which is a roundworm infection. There is also a potential risk to cattle from Neospora being passed through dog poo to roaming cattle and causes cows to abort prematurely. Finally, there’s increasing evidence that the currently high level of foxes, which also spread disease, is in part due to dog poo, which they eat when other food is short.
Animal Accidents
The reduction of animal accidents on the roads across the Forest is something in which the New Forest Trust is heavily invested.
Each year we work with the National Park and support the animal safety campaign, and with a generous donation from The Pig Hotel this summer we were able to fund the re-printing of the brilliant ‘Sally the Pony’ storybooks which we help distribute across the Forest.
It therefore gave us a huge amount of pleasure to award the New Forest Trust Diamond Jubilee Award for 2023 to Gilly Jones at the New Forest and Hampshire County Show in July – Gilly has worked tirelessly for many years to reduce animal deaths and injuries across the Forest, and her work has made a real difference to the speed of traffic in the Forest which means that all of us, including the livestock, are safer – thank you Gilly and congratulations!
