In 1998 the Wyre Forest District Council began experimenting with the use of low intensity cattle grazing to recreate traditional land management practices for conservation management on the urban nature reserves of the Wyre Forest District. This has proved to be highly successful, particularly in the conservation of many of the district marshlands such as Puxton (pictured above). Grazing urban fringe sites can be challenging and the Wyre Forest GAP have had to contend with a number of associated issues such as vandalism, fires and motorbikes and work closely with Police and Fire Brigade.
Following its initial success the Project expanded with additional funding through a grant from English Nature, to incorporate the grazing of local lowland heathland reserves. A contract grazier and herdsmen are currently employed to undertake the grazing. Volunteer lookers are used to help check the animals and the Project also has links to the local community and educational facilities. The Wyre Forest also formed one of the 39 pilot local grazing schemes for GAP UK.
