St Peter Centenier John Jackson says such anti-social activities have huge consequences and not just for the countryside, wildlife and the environment but also for the parishes, States departments, farmers, landowners and others who have to clean it up.
‘Do we care about our Island or don’t we? Do we value it or don’t we? We need to have a change of attitude about the value of the countryside. Take it home and put it in your bin, it simply does not need to happen,’ he said.
‘It adds to the cost of running the Island. If we are serious about making savings, and people want to see greater efficiency in government-run agencies, then there needs to be a change in behaviour,’ he said.
Mr Jackson says people can also help by taking a carrier bag when they go for a walk and picking up everyday litter, such as sandwich cases, cardboard cups, cans and bottles.
‘When you are out and about you see so much rubbish in the bottom of hedges. We really need to value what we have got and it’s being destroyed by rubbish thrown from cars,’ he said.
Mr Jackson also deals with the problem in his job as the rural team manager at the Environment Department.
He says the remedy lies in educating Islanders that fly tipping, dropping litter and dumping green garden waste in the countryside and coastal areas, in particular sites of special interest and environmental importance, has serious implications for the Island and those who have to deal with it all.
Officers at the Environment Department, whose job is to care for Jersey’s environment, say Islanders must understand that dropping litter and dumping unwanted household items, and garden and commercial waste in the countryside – in particular at sites of special interest and environmental importance – have serious implications.
And it isn’t just about cardboard cups, sandwich cases and carrier bags, as bottles and drinks cans can be hazardous for birds, wildlife, dogs, horses and people.
Wildlife can get trapped in bottles and die.
In strong sunlight, glass can cause furze fires, and when cans come in contact with hedge-cutting equipment they get ripped into razor-sharp shards of aluminium.
Environment’s head of waste regulations, David Monks, says fly-tipping and discarding litter without a thought for the consequences is anti-social behaviour. ‘It can cause pollution, and beautiful parts of the Island are being destroyed by it, as it detracts completely from the environment,’ he said. ‘We want to combat it and we need the public’s help. We want the public who see it to report it, if we are to stop it. We want people to go their parish hall, telephone the Environment Department or report it to the police, talk to their Constable or the landowners and let us know about it so we can respond,’ he said.
Since charges were introduced to dispose of commercial green waste at La Collette, he added, the department has had to deal with an increase in the dumping of garden waste in the countryside and at coastal locations.
Natural environment officer Henry Glynn says dumping green waste can have a massive impact on the Island’s biodiversity and indigenous wildlife and plants, as it may contain invasive foreign species, such as garden plants that can spread rapidly in the natural environment.
‘As the material breaks down it can cause nutrient enrichment of the soil, which can affect specialist plant species that grow in the area, by encouraging the growth of more rampant plants and grasses,which can overgrow the specialist low-nutrient species.
‘This is particularly destructive in fragile eco-systems such as sand dunes and heathlands where many of the plants unique to these areas are adapted to low-nutrient soils.
‘This is usually how plants such as Japanese knotweed, Hottentot fig and ice plant get into our natural environment in the first place, before spreading quickly to dominate large areas,’ he said.
The parish recycling sites are also being abused, as Islanders are leaving items, such as electrical goods and household waste, alongside bins for glass, tins, plastic and newspaper, when they should be taken to the recycling centre at Bellozanne or La Collette.
This means that the parishes have to dispose of them, or TTS have to collect them, which creates more work and adds unnecessary costs to an essential and free public service.
Name: Allan McCaffrey, Happy Hens free-range eggs.
Where are you and how many staff do you employ?
Happy Hens is based in Grouville and employs two full-time and one part-time staff members. We have four hen houses and open runs for the chickens.
What did you do before you went into egg production?
I was Condor Ferries’ Jersey freight manager. I wanted a change of direction, so when the opportunity to buy Happy Hens came up, it was too good a chance to miss.
How many chickens do you have and how many eggs do they lay in a year?
I have 8,000 chickens at any one time, and they lay approximately 1.9 million eggs a year.
How important is local provenance and freshness to your business?
Food provenance is not just a local challenge,it is also a global one. It is absolutely vital that we produce more fresh local products and to keep food miles to an absolute minimum. Unlike imported eggs, which may travel hundreds of miles to get here, my eggs are usually in the shops the day they were laid – and you don’t get fresher than that.
What makes your hens happy?
They must be healthy and relaxed to deliver a tip-top product, so their well-being is my top priority. They are the rulers of the roost, and if they’re happy so am I.
Should the States give more support to local producers and why?
ENJOY the lush hedgerows, full of wold flowers and long grasses, while you can, as the first visites du branchage of the year start on 24 June.
Branchage literally means ‘branches’, and in Jersey it refers to the law which ensures that any vegetation growth that overhangs roads and footpaths is cut back.
This includes hedges, branches, trees, shrubs, grass and flowers.
Visites days are a big local parish tradition, when the Constable, Vingteniers, Centeniers and members of the roads committee go around their parish making sure the branchage has been carried out in accordance with the law, which requires a clearance of 12 ft over main roads and by-roads, and 8 ft over footpaths and to clear up all trimmings.
However, with regard to land that is rented, it is the occupier – and not the landlord or landowner – who is responsible for complying with the law.
The day usually ends with the traditional parish branchage dinner, which in some parishes has been known to go on into the early hours of the next day.
For more information about the branchage in your parish, you should contact your parish hall.
The second branchage of 2015 takes place over the first three weeks of September.
IF you see people shining torches up trees in broad daylight as the longest day of the year approaches it will just be members of the Jersey Bat Group looking for bats.
The group has been fitting wooden bat boxes in St Peter’s Valley, Waterworks Valley, St Catherine’s woods and Val de la Mare as part of a survey of the local population.
As the boxes are open at the bottom, the group can see if bats are roosting there during the day, so shining a torch upwards will reveal if the box is being occupied.
The group has also fitted small wooden shelves under the boxes to trap droppings, which can be analysed for DNA to determine which species of bats there are in the Island as part of a nationwide bat survey being undertaken across the British Isles.
Although the boxes were made in the Island by Jersey Bat Group members and prisoners at La Moye Prison, they are the same as those being used in the survey in the UK.
For further information about the Jersey Bat Group and its activities, call 07733 100452.
THE winner of the JEP Countryside competition to name a calf born to the Classic Herd in St Peter was inspired by her four-year-old granddaughter.
Tayla May Jeanne has already met her namesake, Classic Lovabull Tayla Mae, twice and she is going back to Manor Farm again this week with her grandmother, Phyllis Trachy, her brother, Rueben, and their mother, Angela, as part of the prize.
As well as getting to name the calf, which was born on 10 May, Mrs Trachy won a tour of the farm and lunch in the Classic Tea Room in the farm’s retail complex.
Mrs Trachy said she entered the competition because she loved Jersey cows and Tayla May adored all animals.
She reasoned that as the calf was a pure Jersey, she was, therefore, ‘tailor made’, which fitted nicely with her granddaughter’s name
‘I just think that Jersey cows are beautiful. I am proper Jersey, Jersey cows are proper Jersey and this little one is a proper little Jersey cow. She is gorgeous and lively with those lovely doe eyes,’ she said.
Darren and Julia Quénault – and their son, Chas – of Classic Herd are the Island’s only independent dairy farmers milking and making fresh dairy products on site at Manor Farm in St Peter’s Village.
Tayla Mae was registered within a week of being being born in the Royal Jersey Horticultural and Agricultural Society Jersey Herd Book, which dates back to 1866 and records the ancestry of all pedigree Jerseys in the world over the past 149 years.
Naming a Jersey cow has to follow a pattern.
Each herd has a specific name, in the case of Classic Herd – ‘Classic’. Then comes the father’s or sire’s name – ‘Lovabull’ – followed by the calf’s name, which has to contain no more than 15 letters – hence Classic Lovabull Tayla Mae.
