Very early in our role as Exmoor graziers, we realised that to be
sensitive to and have an understanding of conservation management issues was
just as necessary to the success of the project as good pony keeping. It
seemed in the early days that we learned mostly by trial and error as there
was little information to be had on the problems we were trying to get to
grips with at the time. Expertise was freely available from the Exmoor Pony
Society regarding the ponies, but there was little on what is now recognised
as the rather specialised area of conservation grazing with its infinite
number of variables. It became apparent that other people were also
wandering through the maze. Time to get together perhaps?
The first EPIC flyer went out at the beginning of the year. Soon
information was flying back from all sorts of interested people and
organisations. We were encouraged and decided to start to put together some
of these ideas in the form of a newsletter, hence EPICENTRE, which Tim and I
hope you will find worth reading.
Grateful thanks to all those who have contributed or had a helping hand in
the production of Issue Number1, and apologies for any articles that got cut
short or stuck with an inappropriate picture. Apologies for all the
mistakes that passed the proof reader.
Matthew Oates once said, that we all have one or two pieces of what appears
to be a thousand piece, conservation grazing jigsaw. Let's hope that EPIC
will be a useful association, through which we can share knowledge,
information, observations and experiences and can begin to put together the
whole picture.
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