The Hei was used many years ago by farmers to make manure for their farmland, to fertilize the crops. By placing cattle on the land, the farmers took manure rich soil out of it. Because of the constant work applied to the lands, only simple plants could grow there, such as the ‘struikhei’ you find today. In those days trees had no chance to grow in the vitamin rich soil, because the farmers kept on removing them.
The reason that farmers stopped using the heather land was because of the invention of ‘kunstmest’. And because of that the heather land is threatened with the overgrowth of the surrounding forests. This is because many animals carry seeds from the surrounding trees into the open heather land. Also the wind blows these seeds onto the land, and if left to grow, the trees will overpopulate the land.
The Hei also has an underground river, which moisturizes the soil from underneath, helping the plants there to grow. But especially the trees have and advantage because its roots are capable of reaching this underground river.
The GNR has decided to keep the Hei in its original state because the heather lands are beautiful places to go have a walk. But to do this a lot of maintenance is needed. It use to be that the GNR mowed the ‘struikhei’ every half a year because it would otherwise become too dense for its own good. Now they decided to replace the annual mowing with this form of cattle called ‘runder’ grazing on the ‘struikhei’ instead. But this cattle has to be fed twice a day to prevent them from eating too much of the ‘struikhei’. All this cattle also gives the walkers a grave disadvantage; manure. Now that cows graze again, manure is left on the land to dry. This ruins the landscape in my point of view, because now walkers have to beware of where they place their feet.
I believe that it is good that the GNR keeps control over the Hei because it is one of the only places I know that I can go enjoy a stroll with the dog, or just to go have a picnic, or to go riding with my horse. I do enjoy the cows found on the Hei, because they are beautiful animals that give the Hei some atmosphere.
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