Who manages the Common? By Act of Parliament responsibility for the management of the Common rests with the Local Authority; that is, the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. However, the Council seeks to undertake its management in close co-operation with local community groups, and the Friends of Barnes Common is the local group primarily concerned with the management and preservation of the Common as both a Local Nature Reserve and Metropolitan Open Space.
For its part the Friends try to maintain close liaison not only with the Council but also with the Barnes Community Association, the local cricket clubs, cycling groups, local residents and other user groups and interested individuals.
Why does it need active management? The management plan for the Common is aimed at maintaining and enhancing the rich biodiversity found in this 100 acre site, dissected as it is by numerous roads, paths and the railway. It is part of an important Green corridor between the Thames and Richmond Park and is home to one of the largest areas of acid grassland in London outside of the deer-grazed Royal Parks: if we do not maintain the Common this habitat will continue to be lost to scrub and poor-quality woodland, to nobody's advantage.
Why do you cut down some trees? We love trees — when they are in the right place! — but we also love wild grassland, meadow flowers, heathland and scrub, and much of our work is aimed at encouraging a healthy variety of each within the Common — with the emphasis on variety and health. So we have to cut out some saplings and scrub oak in the grassland and among the gorse and broom; we also have to stop bramble spreading from the woodland undergrowth into the open meadows and we cut back the bracken which can smother everything else. We create glades within the woodlands for butterflies and birds. We leave standing dead wood whenever safe, for beetles and other invertebrates.
Do you have any positive plans for biodiversity? We are looking to go further and enhance the biodiversity by re-introducing more heather (there are just two very small patches of the original heather left now), and we are proposing to create a new reed-bed near to the Beverley Brook which ought to encourage reed warblers as well as dragon and damsel flies, and maybe more kingfishers as well.
What do you do to enhance the amenity for local people? In all this we try to strike a balance between the often conflicting demands for more sporting facilities (the Common supports two cricket pitches of remarkable natural beauty for a site so close to Central London, as well as a soccer pitch), for paths for dog-walkers (we keep open many informal paths, while deliberately leaving other areas for the wildlife), for ready access to the station, and we even maintain eight war graves within the Old Cemetery — one of our prime sites for both birds and butterflies. Why don't you do more? We never forget that this is a Common and not a municipal park — we seek to avoid signs; we hope that our maintenance looks natural and goes unnoticed by all but the most observant — but this calls for a little but often approach which also calls for enough volunteers to make it possible, augmented for the heavier work by the occasional professional contractor, for mowing and tree-work in particular.
Would you like to help us maintain your Common? E-mail info@barnescommon.org.uk to request a membership leaflet and details of our future activities.