94
THE ESSEX NATURALIST
At the Public Local Inquiry, the Trust joined with other local
organisations and engaged counsel to present the case against
development on natural history grounds. The Minister of Housing
and Local Government eventually decided to refuse permission for
the development. This, however, was not enough for the Trust
and other local organisations and they decided to press the local
council and the Essex County Council to purchase the area as a
public open space. This pressure must have had some effect, for
early this year the County Council decided to proceed with the
purchase at a cost of about £75,000.
Although there is clearly much still to be done in protecting
areas and sites and in establishing more reserves, Trusts will have
to devote more and more of their energies and resources to the
management of existing reserves. Voluntary assistance has its
limits and some reserves will require paid wardening. There are
also such items as the provision of notice-boards, repair of fences,
and scientific needs, like the control of predators and vegetation,
the felling and planting of trees, the maintenance of water levels,
excavating ponds and so on.
Most Trusts recognise that reserves can in the long run be
successfully maintained only by the widest possible sympathy and
understanding by the public, and a difficulty that often arises is
the reconciliation of free public access with effective conservation.
A Trust's activities are not, of course, confined to establishing
and managing nature reserves and the protection, where possible,
of S.S.S.I.s. The preservation of the flora of road verges calls for
mention. There is a national agreement between The Nature
Conservancy and the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation
whereby it is agreed that no objection will be raised to the use by
highways authorities of selective weedkillers containing sub-
stituted pheno-oxyacetic acids for control of roadside vegetation,
subject to the following conditions:
(a) Spraying should only be carried out on trunk and class 1
roads and on certain dangerous corners of class 2 roads, and
at the earliest susceptible stage of growth which, in the south
of England, is usually reached at the beginning of May.
(b) On wide verges, spraying should be limited to within ten feet
of the road edge except where stands of injurious weeds occur.
On narrower roads care must be taken to avoid spraying the
hedge and immediate vicinity. It is emphasised that drift in
windy weather is a serious hazard to adjacent hedgerows and
to susceptible crops and garden plants.
(c) In certain areas, highways authorities may be asked to leave
unsprayed sections of class 1 roads where interesting species
or communities occur.
(d) The practice must still be regarded as experimental and sub-
ject to review in the light of further experience.
Injurious weeds are defined by statute as: Spear Thistle
(Carduus lanceolatus). Creeping or Field Thistle (Carduus