Cows have come to Ickenham as part of a £23,000 project to boost plant and wildife habitats in a nature reserve.
The London Wildlife Trust (LWT) runs the Ickenham Marshes reserve - a collection of around 40 fields between Ickenham and Ruislip - and is leading a project to encourage plant, bird, mammal and bug species to thrive.
Work has started in the marshes in Austin’s Lane, Ickenham, which sits on the banks of Yeading Brook, a tributary of the River Crane.
The work will restore areas of floodplain grazing marsh, grassland, fen and wood pasture but as the reserve’s ground is very wet, traditional management by humans is hard.
Which is why the LWT have chosen to use a well-established four-legged management system - cows.
Their grazing will keep grass levels down and preserve and improve the environment in the marshes.
Gates and fences will be put up to ensure public access continues alongside the cows.
Wildlife Trust staff and volunteers will lend a hand though, with clearing scrub encroaching on the wet grassland.
LWT reserves manager, Tom Hayward, said: “This project will greatly improve this important and well-visited habitat and it is great that work has started.
“The presence of the cows and the improved habitat they will create will offer more opportunities for people to enjoy this beautiful and important environment.”
Funding of £22,950 has been granted by The Veolia Environmental Trust through the Landfill Communities Fund - where waste companies retain a small part of their Landfill Tax bill and use it to support community and environmental projects.
The LWT’s Heritage Lottemanagry Fund supported River Crane Community Project regularly runs walks in the marshes and it hopes the improvements made will also increase the reserve’s appeal and public access to it.
The borough’s LWT volunteer group highlighted the need for the project, which is supported by Natural England, as well as the need to introduce conservation grazing in the marshes.
