Angus Hanton

CEO

Woodlands Investment Management Limited

 

October 2023

Dear Angus

Making Juniper Hill Fields an asset for future generations

 

We are writing to you because of our deep concern about the future of Juniper Hill Field, a 20 acre field your company owns near Stroud in Gloucestershire. Concerned local residents have formed a group to explore how best to protect this rare habitat, and we very much hope that you will be open to discussing with us a way forward.

 

We understand that one of your own personal concerns is to make the natural world accessible to more people. We are also aware of your commitment to future generations from your work with the Intergenerational Foundation.  We would like to discuss with you how conservation for future generations can best be achieved on Juniper Hill Field.

 

This field is a rare, species-rich, calcareous grassland and is of crucial significance as a link between several adjacent Sites of Special Scientific Interest.  Given the climate crisis, all long term conservation now depends on lands which enable species to move: Juniper Hill Field provides one such vital ‘wildlife corridor’.  In addition, the field is much loved by a wide range of people and has been walked by many locals for over four decades. As an indication of local concern, on October 8th, over seventy people gathered for a walk on the field to support a campaign to protect its future. Hundreds of supporters have also signed up on our website and many have left messages of concern (see examples in Annex 2). 

 

In the light of the above, we would like to discuss with you how the land could be managed as a nature reserve that would conserve its biodiversity, while also making it accessible to people with minimum damage. 

 

We understand Natural England put in a bid to buy the field and are keen to explore if there is a way to reopen those negotiations. Another option is to make the field into a nature reserve, managed under contract by a conservation organisation. In both scenarios, the field could then be managed with light grazing, which is the appropriate regime to support its wide range of species and which has contributed to a remarkable recovery of the biodiversity over the last two decades. Ecologists have made it clear that mowing is not appropriate for such calcareous grassland - as explained in the attached technical note (Annex 1) from Kate Gamez, a former Senior Reserve Manager of Cotswold Commons and Beechwood NNR, who has extensive experience of conservation on Juniper Hill and the surrounding area.

 

We would be very grateful if you would agree to meet a few of us to examine these and other options that might serve your own conservation concerns as well as the hopes of the local community who care deeply about the future of this precious natural asset.  Perhaps you could suggest a date and a place where such a meeting could take place.