Trial Dog Zonation Scheme 2021 – key findings and conclusions

The fixed-term trial was part of our on-going byelaw review, to ensure we have the best mechanisms in place to support our management of Lindisfarne National Nature Reserve.

Bird disturbance surveys and zone adherence surveys were carried out to collect data on the effectiveness of the trial.  Data was collected by NNR staff, volunteers, an MSc Student from Newcastle University with data forwarded to Ecological Consulting for independent analysis.  Several letters, emails and phone calls were also received by NNR staff relating to the scheme. These have been collated to draw together the following key findings:

•          The current byelaw about keeping dogs on lead or close at heel to prevent the disturbance of wildlife was not sufficiently clearly explained, which meant that visitors to the NNR believed they were keeping to the byelaw with their dogs off their lead running or walking some distance from themselves.
•          There was very low awareness by the general public, including local people, that there is an existing a byelaw within Lindisfarne NNR requiring visitors to keep their dog under close control.: bringing into, or permitting to remain within the Reserve; (i) any dog unless it is kept on a lead or at heel and is prevented from worrying or disturbing any animal or bird, or (ii) any other animal
•          Visitor numbers have increased significantly to the NNR in the last few years and those areas of the NNR which were once relatively undisturbed are now attracting increasingly large number of visitors.
•          The existing Shorebird Protection Areas continued to be effective in providing a refuge for breeding, roosting, and feeding shorebirds and the 2021 season witnessed the highest count of breeding Little Terns and Arctic Terns since formal recording commenced in the early 1970s.
•           Disturbance surveys indicate that walkers with and without dogs, impact breeding & non-breeding shore birds across the NNR.
•          The Dog Zonation scheme was successful in reducing disturbance to the key areas in the red zones (and supporting higher bird numbers as a consequence), where disturbance from dogs (and people) was generally at only a very low level. This success was largely attributable to the active wardening at those locations.
•          Compliance with the amber zone rules was generally low. Dogs were frequently observed off-lead and overall disturbance levels were very high in the southern part of the Budle Bay amber zone, in the Chare Ends amber zone adjacent to Holy Island village and along the Pilgrim’s Way. The analyses showed that the levels of disturbance were such that waterbird numbers of a range of species in these areas were reduced (though other species appeared more resilient to disturbance).

 

1.       CONCLUSIONS

In reviewing the evidence, Natural England have come to the following conclusions in addressing the management of people and dogs across the NNR:

•        We will not continue the dog zonation scheme in future years.
•         We will continue to maintain our current suite of seasonal Shorebird Protection Areas and will look for opportunities to extend the number or size of areas where appropriate, as wildlife refugia have been shown to be an effective measure to protect against disturbance.
•         We will work with our other partners including the National Trust and Space for Shorebirds to identify whether there are other sites outside the NNR which would benefit from developing small wildlife refugia.
•          Further work is required to better inform visitors coming to Northumberland about the unique and special qualities of Lindisfarne NNR and its importance for wildlife nationally and internationally.
•          We will improve our interpretation to better explain to visitors about the importance and value of Lindisfarne NNRs unique bird assemblage and better explain why both winter and summer birds are sensitive to disturbance and how visitors can support our approach to conservation management of these internationally important species.
•          We will work to better communicate the importance for the control of dogs when visiting the NNR and the legal requirement for dog owners to not allow their dogs to disturb wildlife.
•         We will seek to revise the current wording of the byelaw to provide much greater clarity; requiring owners to have their dogs on a short lead at all times when visiting the NNR.
•         We will work with tourism businesses and accommodation providers to look at ways in which we can provide positive information to visitors coming to Northumberland with their dogs, welcoming them to the NNR, identifying suitable dog walks in and close to the NNR and alerting them to problems with Pirri-pirri bur and how best to avoid them.
•         We will also improve information to visitors to reinforce important messages around not disturbing the seal population within the NNR.
•         We will investigate the use of our staff and volunteers having access to body cameras when patrolling our sites to reduce the incidents of abuse that they have suffered whilst on duty.