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Welcome
to the
brand new website for New
Forest Badgers |
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The New
Forest is both a wild and
a managed landscape covering
144 square miles of
Hampshire in Southern
England.
Established in 1969, the New
Forest Badger Group
monitors
an area of diverse habitats
where hunting, livestock
farming
& arboriculture have
moulded the forest we see
today.
Now
designated as England's
newest National Park....
....A new era dawns. |
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Paying
particular attention to The
Badger, this website will
endeavour to show
what makes
the New Forest and its
Natural History so special |
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SPRING/SUMMER
2006 |
Dear Badger Group
friends,
The last twelve months have been a
period of great activity for the
Group. In the summer Martin and
Julia Noble hosted their open day at
Keepers Cottage, always a popular
event. This time was no exception,
with good weather, plenty to see and
an excellent tea We managed to raise
over £100 in the hat to go towards
the high costs of looking after all
these animals,
There were two stalls at Lymington,
the second in August was massively
profitable, Then finally there was
the fully-subscribed evening at
Beaulieu in December with guest
speaker Chris Packham. I
would like to extend sincere thanks
to everyone who played their part in
making all these events so
successful.
Shortly before Christmas the Badger
world was appalled to learn of
DEFRA's proposals for a Badger cull
in response to pressure from the
farming lobby. They were prompted to
strike out against something -
badgers being the obvious choice -
As farmers were faced with the
double whammy of proposed
pre-movement testing of cattle and
reduction in levels of compensation
for bovine TB losses.
We formed a subcommittee to
formulate our response. The
submission to DEFRA by this Group
can be seen
here.
We owe enormous thanks to Martin,
Manuel and Simon for very many hours
of work on this project - midnight
oil was burned, quite literally.
Many members also sent in individual
objections for which they are to be
applauded.
On the subject of initiatives, there
were several this
year, a
sub-committee comprising Julia,
Jenny and
Juliet, helped by Peter
Dobson, produced in a very
short
time-frame a leaflet for the Group,
which many
of you will have seen at Beauleiu. It will be a great
publicity tool at our future events,
The Group also
received, and the
committee gratefully accepted, a
most generous offer from Manuel and
Peter to
produce this web site for
us and to fund its
installation and
basic running costs.
Jenny has continued to produce our
excellent newsletter, the latest
issue available today at this AGM.
While member, Helen Tinker has
introduced us to another venue for a
sales table, the RSPCA open day at
Ashley Heath, see
Future events.
Please do support our stall there.
These successful events have
considerably boosted the Group's
funds and financial base. This has
also helped by the increased
subscription rate and an encouraging
increase in membership. There have
also been some generous donations
from some of our members.
I hope you will have a worthwhile
Badger watching season, and my
thanks again to all who have
contributed to a fine year for the
New Forest Badger Group
With best wishes
Adrian Butterworth |
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