MAY I through your newspaper air my concern about what is being done on the Roding Meadows nature reserve?

Cows are being grazed over the winter months and are creating a heck of a mess on what was once a very pleasant walk.

I wrote to the portfolio holder of the reserve last year but I think there must be a financial interest in there somewhere, I sent him the following poem, for what good it did.

The grazing cows have left their mark

The pathways now aren't fit to walk.

To let this land to be so used

And see these walkways so abused

A practice one cannot applaud

With pleasant walks now so despoiled.

The hoofholes being so close together

One begins to wonder whether

It is safe on this terrain

To walk and risk an ankle sprain,

Or even worse one's leg could fracture

Whilst strolling here in step with nature.

Eliminate this hazard then

We may enjoy our walks again.

Why build stiles and gates and fencing?

They're only there to keep the cows in.

Without the cows there is no need,

Then every piece of land is freed

For us to stroll without restraint

Is it now better ? No it ain't.

I saw this sign in the Antipodes

Adherence here would surely please

Leave nought but footprints (but not cows)

Take only photographs and memories.

It is suggested that wild flowers flourish with the presence of cows but some experts have an opposite opinion to that, and when the cows were excluded from the reserve one winter, the wild flowers the following year were never better.

J. BOWTLE, Broomfield Avenue, Loughton.

April 30, 2003 10:00