Natural History Wanderings

MSN  reports

Dogs are not allowed off leash at a popular hiking and dog walking spot called the Nature Reserve in Lewes, England. Many of the park’s native wildflowers and grasses had disappeared after decades of use, leaving it sparse and overly trodden.

“It was a degraded woodland,” said Dylan Walker, a wildlife manager in Lewes. “We weren’t seeing any plants coming up. People were loving our urban nature reserve to death.”

So dog owners were surprised in March when they saw an unusual offer: They could bring in their dogs and let them run free in the reserve, as long as the pups would wear backpacks while frolicking. The backpacks would be filled with seed mix to help reseed the ground.

Read more at A Popular Nature Park Was trambled by Overuse. Dogs Came to the Rescue.