This advice is for dog lovers who also love the Heath! Did you know that the Heath has millions of dog visits per year? At a dog swimming pond in summer, we have counted over 100 dogs swimming in a single hour. These visits to the Heath are highly beneficial to dog health, and to our own. For many of us they mean healthy exercise and time in nature.
Through no fault of their own, dogs can harm nature on the Heath and reduce its benefits to them and to us. Every season on our nature boards we will share different ways in which you can be a Nature-Friendly Dog Walker. Here are our messages with more detail and helpful tips on nature-friendly dog walking.
Keep dogs out of nesting sites
Keep your dog out of dense vegetation in Spring.
From March to July, over fifty kinds of bird nest on the Heath, many in low, dense vegetation in woodland and field margins. Please keep your dog out of patches of holly and brambly scrub, so that they do not disturb nesting and feeding birds and hedgehogs. If your dog is well trained and responds to basic recall this should be easy. There are tips for recall training at the end of this page. Otherwise, please put your dog on a lead in these areas.
Dogs with spot-ons pollute ponds
Be very careful when letting your dog swim
Dog swimming is very popular. Specific dog swimming areas were created years ago to reduce tragic incidents where dogs attack, or are attacked by, waterfowl.
In the past year, a serious problem with dog flea treatments has been discovered on the Heath. Spot-on treatments for fleas are powerful poisons that wash off into our ponds and affect pondlife like fish and dragonflies. Through no fault of their own, dogs are causing serious pesticide pollution.
Dog swimming ponds on the Heath now have levels of these pesticides as much as ten times that considered safe for nature. We are working to find the best way to remove this risk. Meanwhile, please consult this advice, and talk to your vet about alternatives to spot-on treatments, if you regularly take your dog to the Heath.
Remember to only swim your dogs in the three designated ponds and strictly within the floating barriers there. This will limit both poisoning of the ponds and risks to waterfowl. Finally, when there is a blue-green algae outbreak on our ponds, signs will go up to keep your dog out. This is important. The toxins from these microscopic plants can seriously harm your dog.
Dog fur with spot-ons can kill birds
Many songbirds collect dog fur in Spring to line their nests. Scientific studies show that, if this fur has spot-on flea pesticides, it may kill eggs and chicks. If you are concerned about this impact on wild birds, you may wish to consult your vet on alternatives to spot-on flea and tick treatments.
Protect hedgehogs from dog disturbance
Keep your dog on paths in woodland
Scientific studies on the Heath have shown that the floor of its woodland is used by special Heath species like thrushes and hedgehogs which are disturbed by dogs. For instance, a study using camera traps has shown that hedgehogs, which forage mostly at night, reduce their activity near dawn and dusk in areas with high dog activity.
We are concerned that, by squeezing wildlife into smaller parts of the Heath, we may be limiting their ability to forage and feed. If your dog is well-trained in basic recall, it should be easy to keep her or him in sight and on paths. If not, please consider using a lead.
Protect meadow habitats and wildlife
Don’t let your dog frighten wildlife or dig in meadows
Dogs love to play and run on grass and chasing pigeons in city parks is fairly harmless. But Heath meadows are home to more sensitive and rare wildlife, like Green Woodpecker, Stock Dove, Rabbit and Grass Snake. When walking your dog on Heath meadows, please discourage it from chasing and disturbing wildlife.
Heath meadows are also home to rare plants and less visible wildlife like Yellow Meadow Ants, which make the mounds you see in many fields, and which are the special food of Green Woodpeckers. When dogs dig in meadows, particularly in these ant hills, they damage these habitats.
Train your dog for walking in nature
If you have not done so already, why not train your dog to recall to a cue? Then you can successfully call him or her back if they go into areas where they may disturb wildlife. Here are some tips from Dean Ashton, The London Dog Trainer who also coordinates the Hampstead Heath Birders WhatsApp group.
Set aside a little time every day to condition the value of your dog’s recall cue. Simply say “Come” (ONCE) and reward your dog with a very tasty tidbit treat. Do 10/15 reps per session, always providing a treat. “Come = treat x 10/15. Aim to reach 2000 reps in daily sets of 10/15 over the next few months.
Do this in different contexts, start in a range of environments with few distractions, like at home, and then moving gradually into more distracting environments, building up to areas like the Heath.
Go slowly, with lots of breaks. And always reinforce “Come”. You will find that, with enough reasons to return to you when he or she hears your cue, your dog will become conditioned to recall. And remember – always think about the behaviour you want, not the behaviour you don’t want! Enjoy the process, do the work, and the rest will follow.
Learn about our Society’s project with local green space managers to create the Camden Biodiversity Corridor, reaching from Hampstead Heath southward into Camden neighbourhoods. Creating one of London’s new “nature recovery networks”, the Corridor will make nature on the Heath more resilient to growing pressure from people and climate change, while bringing health-enhancing wildlife experiences to residents in some of the most nature-poor parts of our Borough.
Learn about our Society’s project with local green space managers to create the Camden Biodiversity Corridor, reaching from Hampstead Heath southward into Camden neighbourhoods. Creating one of London’s new “nature recovery networks”, the Corridor will make nature on the Heath more resilient to growing pressure from people and climate change, while bringing health-enhancing wildlife experiences to residents in some of the most nature-poor parts of our Borough.
Learn about our Society’s project with local green space managers to create the Camden Biodiversity Corridor, reaching from Hampstead Heath southward into Camden neighbourhoods. Creating one of London’s new “nature recovery networks”, the Corridor will make nature on the Heath more resilient to growing pressure from people and climate change, while bringing health-enhancing wildlife experiences to residents in some of the most nature-poor parts of our Borough.
Maintaining the openness of the Heath: The skyline to the South and South East of Hampstead Heath is of vital importance to the amenity of Hampstead Heath . It has an immediate impact on long range views over the whole of London from both Parliament Hill and the fields and amenities beneath. These famous views are an invaluable asset to locals, Londoners and visitors to the capital alike and must be preserved.
The lower, Southern sections of the Heath are open grassed areas which allow tall buildings to the South & South East to be clearly seen. Currently, the pattern of development to the south of the heath is predominantly dense low rise buildings – generally 3 to 6 storey in height and these form a ‘soft’ horizon which permits longer range views beyond it. The prospect of replacing this horizon with high rise is a cause for concern.
Executive Summary: This submission to the 2024 Camden Local Plan consultation is made by the Heath & Hampstead Society with the support of a consortium of local organizations and community groups. It proposes the development of a nature-rich green corridor from Hampstead Heath into Kentish Town through improvements in a chain of five Camden Sites of Interest for Nature Conservation (SINCs) and their connection through green infrastructure established across future development on three Camden Site Allocations: Murphy’s Yard, Regis Road and West Kentish Town Estate.
The objectives of this Camden Nature Corridor are to increase biodiversity in Central Camden, contributing to Camden’s strategy for nature recovery networks, and to make health-enhancing nature experiences more accessible to local residents.
Sheep are part of an ecological trial on Hampstead Heath 11-18 September.
If the pilot is successful, animal grazing could be expanded to other areas of the Heath. Grazing is known to play a major role in boosting species-rich wildlife habitats and reducing the use of machinery.
Unlike mowing, grazing produces a mosaic of vegetation heights and types, improving ecological sites for species including amphibians, small mammals, invertebrates and wildflowers.
The Heath & Hampstead Society together with the City of London Corporation celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Hampstead Heath Act with a concert at the Bandstand on 5th September 2021.
The sun came out – along with several hundred spectators
– to shine on a free concert calked ‘Natural Aspect’. Why that title? It is
taken from the original wording of the Hampstead Heath Act 1871 whereby the
Heath was to be preserved for ever more as an oasis with a “natural aspect”.
On 27th June 2021, marking 150 years of the Hampstead Heath Act 1871, members of the Kite Society of Great Britain gave a spectacular display of kite flying, with tricks and intricate routines accompanied by music, in the beautiful surroundings of the Heath.
Interpretation boards, promoting appreciation and conservation of Nature on the Heath, have been produced by the Society working with the City of London , English Heritage and the Marylebone Birdwatching Society since 2021. Placed at seven entrances, they are changed every season to reflect the Heath’s biodiversity and seasonality. Read more…
For many Londoners, our green spaces – especially the Heath – are an important amenity where we can take refuge from city life with fresh air, wildlife, and beautiful views. Hampstead in particular has long been seen as a retreat in times of crisis. In his History of Westminster Abbey, the 15th century monk John Flete recorded that the abbot of Westminster, Simon de Bircheston, fled to Hampstead in order to escape the Black Death in May 1349. However, de Bircheston efforts were in vain and he died later that year from plague. In January 1524, soothsayers predicted that London would face a great flood and thousands of homes would be swept away on February 1. Many families, both rich and poor, fled to Hampstead believing that its high elevation would protect them.
A nesting birds survey conducted by the Society has found a family of buzzards at Kenwood. Professor Jeff Waage, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who is leading the research, said: “It is exceedingly rare to see these sorts of birds in an urban area, and now all of a sudden they’re here, hanging around. It’s something that we never expected to see when we decided to begin the survey. Our buzzards show us how easily wildlife can return if we just make space for it.”
