Letter fails to ring true

The open areas are maintained as a wildlife meadow.

This means that the grasses and wild plants are allowed to grow long during the summer and then, at the end of the year, the grass is mown and flailed.

Wildlife meadows and hay meadows are a diminishing habitat and I think the Friends of Lancing Ring showed remarkable common sense to object to plans to change 60 years of meadow to a pasture, which would be detrimental.

This does not mean anyone can rest on their laurels, because if the management is just neglect, the woody scrub will take over.

I have recorded a total species number of more than 30 butterflies. There is also a rich variety of grassland mushrooms.

If you want to see what rough pasture looks like, you can go to South-wick Hill, or Anchor Bottom, where cattle have changed the fauna and flora completely to a sparser, rough pasture habitat and wiped out thousands of butterflies.

These areas also have a much reduced variety of wild plants.

Andy Horton

Lancing Ring nature website