Nature reserves in Barnet
The London Borough of Barnet, on the northern outskirts of London, is mainly residential, but it has large areas of green space and farmland. The spread of suburban development into the countryside was halted by the designation of a statutory Green Belt around London after the Second World War, and almost one third of Barnet's area of 8,663 hectares (21,410 acres) is Green Belt. Without this control, Barnet would be very different today, and this list of nature reserves would be much shorter.
Most of Barnet lies over London Clay, which is poor for agriculture, and open land is mainly used for activities such as horse grazing, playing fields, parks and golf courses. Features of the traditional agricultural landscape have survived, such as old hedgerows, ancient trees and areas of herb-rich grassland. Some hay meadows have a large diversity of wild flowers, and the London Ecology Unit (LEU) described them as one of Barnet's most important ecological assets.
Barnet has large areas with designations intended to protect them from "inappropriate development", and to "provide the strongest protection for the preservation of Barnet's green and natural open spaces". As well as 2,466 hectares (6,090 acres) of Green Belt, Barnet has another 690 hectares (1,700 acres) of Metropolitan Open Land, which receive a similar level of protection. Watling Chase Community Forest covers 72 square miles (190 km2), extending north and west from Totteridge into south Hertfordshire.
In 1992 Barnet Council commissioned the LEU to carry out a survey of wildlife habitats in the borough, which looked at green sites covering 4,055 hectares (10,020 acres), 45% of the borough. In 1997 the LEU published Nature Conservation in Barnet, which described 67 Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINCs). This formed the basis of Barnet's nature conservation policies in its 2006 Unitary Development Plan, designated as "a material planning consideration" to be used as "non-statutory guidance". The table below lists SINCs described in Nature Conservation in Barnet. SINCs do not have statutory protection, but some sites are also wholly or partly designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest or Local Nature Reserves, which do have statutory protection. According to a report of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 39% of Barnet's SINCs were "in positive conservation management" in 2009–10. Barnet Council did not supply figures for 2010–11, 2011–12 or 2012-13.
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