Salt licks put out in New Forest to protect livestock
It helps stop ponies wandering onto roads when gritters are out
A scheme to help prevent the deaths of livestock on roads in the New Forest begun for a fourth year.
Salt licks are being put out for the animals with the aim of encouraging them away from the roadside where they are at risk of being hit by traffic.
Ponies especially, are known to congregate by the roadside during the colder months, attracted by the salt spread by gritting lorries.
The salt licks scheme sees plastic bowls containing lumps of rock salt fixed into a car tyre.
The idea was set up by New Forest commoners Tony Vanderhoek and Bill Howells, and is funded by the New Forest Trust:
“The whole idea started when four ponies were killed at once near Brook and it was a horrific sight,” explained Tony.
“The reason why those ponies were killed was because of salt licking on the side of the road and a van ploughed into them at high speed. It was one of the worst animal accident incidents in recent times and gained much attention.
“One of the New Forest CDA members suggested as a result putting salt licks out, so we thought we would give it a try. The design we chose was the simplest and most effective one amongst several ideas.
“The ponies need salt in the summer because they sweat and in the winter it can be compared to having sweets. Hearing the gritter lorries gets their attention and sometimes brings them up to the roads.
“The idea was to put these salt licks out so the ponies didn’t feel the need to wait for a gritter lorry as they had a supply they could go to and have their fill. By putting them at the same place every year as we have been doing, they know where they are and go back to them, being habitual in their nature.”
A total of 17 of these salt licks have been sited along the Cadnam to Fordingbridge Road, at a safe distance away from the road.
More are planned along the Dibden Purlieu to Lymington Road later this year.
The salt licks are one of several initiatives to try to reduce animal accidents as much as possible.
Others include an ongoing campaign encouraging drivers to pass wide and slow when near Forest livestock.
Chair of the New Forest Trust William Ziegler said:
“We are very grateful to local businesses who support us and in doing so, allow the Trust to fund various initiatives across the New Forest.
“Over the past few years, the salt lick scheme has been well received so we are very pleased to contribute to this initiative and try and help bring down the numbers of road accidents involving livestock.”