Fairfield Association urgently need your help in their Ragwort Battle
The Fairfield Association Urban Nature Area (FAUNA) fields are covered in ragwort, which is having a very successful year this summer across Lancashire. Although it is good for the cinnabar moth and other nectar-loving insects, ragwort is dangerous to horses and cows and so has to be removed from the FAUNA fields, which are grazed by Robin Loxam’s beautiful heritage White Park cattle.
Oliver Fulton, FAUNA organizer, said:
“The ragwort is almost everywhere. We have removed huge amounts of it in the last couple of months, clearing one and a half fields. But now the ragwort is beginning to seed and so we have stopped trying to dig it out and are now cutting and bagging it, to prevent the seeds from spreading and so allow us to continue digging into the autumn. So we are desperate for help in cutting the ragwort in the next couple of weeks. We can supply tools and show people how to do it.”
Those wanting to help cut ragwort should contact Mick Short urgently: Whitegates, Sunnyside Close, Lancaster LA1 5NH; telephone Lancaster 63890; email: m.short@lancaster.ac.uk