There are few places in England where anyone can enjoy a walk, cycle, or ride through as diverse, beautiful and wildlife rich a landscape as the New Forest.
It is the most densely populated National Park in the UK with 35,000 residents within the National Park itself and a further 16 million people within a 90-minute drive of it. Dog walkers from both within and nearthe Forest are by far the biggest user group, making up to 60% of the total visits.
That’s a lot of dogs – and, potentially, a lot of poo!
Most people bag and bin their dog’s poo if they’re walking around town. However, in the New Forest many dog walkers are more likely to “stick & flick” dog poo into the bushes.
I write this article to explain why we need responsible dog owners to pick up after their pets and dispose of the bagged waste in a bin wherever they are in the Forest.
Dog poo contains viruses, bacteria and parasites which can affect other dogs, grazing animals and people – in some cases even after the waste has decomposed and is no longer visible.
The effects of some of these pathogens are extremely serious and can even lead to the death of unborn young in grazing animals like cattle and deer or other dogs.
Dog owners often protect their pets from parasites by treating them with medication, but this can cause problems in the Forest too: the active ingredients of some treatments may harm beetles, insects and other invertebrates that would otherwise help decompose the waste.
Bagging and binning it helps to protect these vital, but easily over-looked animals, some of which are already very rare and which we don’t want to become rarer!
The New Forest is home to so many plants, many rare elsewhere but thriving in the low
nutrient sandy soils of our heathland.
They don’t survive in soils enriched with nutrients from dog waste and slowly, but surely, are replaced by other, more commonplace, plants.
During periods of heavy rain, the nutrients, bacteria, and medication from discarded dog
waste pollutes and harms the wildlife of our streams, rivers and ponds too.
I write this in February and some “early birds” are already establishing territories and thinking about nesting.
Its hard to imagine, but the success of this year’s ground nesting bird season could be determined by how many people didn’t pick up after their dogs during the winter: foxes feed on discarded dog waste because it contains significant nutrients and calories.
This can sustain the fox population at unnaturally high levels which increases the likelihood of their predating other wildlife, including the iconic, but ever more vulnerable, curlew.
For all of the ecological reasons outlined above, as well as the fact that nobody wants their walk marred by their stepping in the stuff, the responsible dog walker will always show that they care for the New Forest by removing and binning dog waste – that last bit, the binning of the bagged waste, is of course, key!
Contrary to the belief of a few, dog waste bagged even in compostable or biodegradable plastics will take months, or even years, to breakdown, and compound the issue of the poo with that of plastic pollution or, even worse, the bags may be eaten by wildlife or ponies with devastating consequences.
To “pick” or to “flick”?
Please, please, pick! Thank you!
For more information about any of the above look out for me, or one of the other National Park rangers, out on patrol, or alternatively get in touch with me via email, jim.day@newforestnpa.gov.uk