Volunteer Rangers tackle anti-social behaviour in visitor car parks

During April and May the Mendip Hills AONB Unit are running a campaign to improve people’s experiences in the visitor car parks of this Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The campaign aims to reduce anti-social behaviour, specifically litter, dog poo and car crime.

The campaign is to remind visitors that these car parks are in nature reserves and generally looked after by volunteers. The litter and dog poo are unpleasant to look at but also come with have real impacts on the plants and animals.

Nature Recovery
Many of the visitor car parks are the entrances to nature reserves so people can help nature recover just by bagging their dogs’ poo and taking it home with their litter. In one national nature reserve in Buckinghamshire it was estimated that 60 tonnes of faeces was left behind by dog owners in one year. The poo changes the composition of the soil by adding nutrients, particularly nitrogen. To help Mendip’s amazing limestone grasslands recover nitrogen shouldn’t be added as it helps nettles to dominate the rare flowers.

Alongside the unpleasant visual impact that litter has, there are other, potentially more damaging effects that litter may pose in the natural environment. Much of the litter left behind is plastic and may also contain toxic substances which can pollute water courses. The Mendip Hills collects water in the three reservoirs of Chew, Blagdon and Cheddar that supply water to 1.1 million people and businesses in the Bristol Water area. As a society we are all paying for this water to be cleaned.

Volunteer Rangers Count Dog Poo & Litter
On Saturday 7th March the Volunteer Rangers visited 10 visitor car parks to survey how much litter and dog poo there was. The volunteers collected 25kg of litter and counted 409 piles of dog poo, weighing approximately 24.5kg. The worse site for litter was Bleadon Hill and the worse site for dog poo was Blackmoor Nature Reserve with over 96 individual piles of dog poo on one path for 300 metre’s. 

Lauren Holt, Ranger with the Mendip Hills AONB Unit said, ‘It’s unfortunate that the worse affected area by dog poo is a Site of Special Scientific Interest for the rare plants and used by educational groups all the time. Visitors can help nature recover on the Mendip Hills everytime they visit. I’m sure people don’t realise how they’re affecting nature by leaving their dogs’ poo and litter. Plus we want to get the message across that it’s volunteers cleaning up, there aren’t paid contractors going around cleaning up.’

The Hills Have Eyes
As a result of this the Mendip Hills AONB Unit are starting a campaign called The Hills Have Eyes to coincide with Keep Britain Tidy’s ‘Great British Spring Clean’ between 20th March and 13th April. Volunteer Rangers will be in the visitor car parks during the campaign to give out free dog poo bags, keep an eye on people’s cars and give out helpful hints on where the best places to walk are.