Love Dogs, Love Nature Forum

April 2025

We are a nation of dog lovers with the Dogs Trust estimating that there are as many as 13 million dogs in the UK. The Love Dogs, Love Nature Project, facilitated by Surrey Hills Natural Landscapes, has recently been set up to provide joined up education, advice and to develop constructive ideas on how to best manage the relationship between dogs and our natural environment.

Our staff attended their recent event on Thursday 27 March, with Dr Thomas Roberts, Co-Director of the Institute for Sustainability, sharing his findings from an onoing project to analyse the behaviour of dog walkers in the Surrey Hills.  The half-day workshop gave opportunities for land managers to understand the conflict between dog walkers and other user groups and the impact pet dogs have on wildlife and habitats.

There were insightful words from Cllr. Marisa Heath, Coordinator of the Government advisory body CFSG – CANINE AND FELINE SECTOR GROUP .  In 2018 Cllr. Heath ran a Parliamentary inquiry into Livestock Worrying after becoming aware that dogs chasing farm animals was increasing and becoming a significant issue:

“As a dog owner and as someone who runs the Canine and Feline Sector Group which advises Government, I understand only too well how important dogs are to so many people.  However, it does not come without its problems, especially the threat that some behaviours bring to our wildlife and farming communities.  The countryside belongs to everyone, we are all equally responsible and any interventions must be achievable. I think this work can really make a difference and ensure we can remain a county of dog lovers and enable nature to return and farming to continue.”

Joining the Love Dogs, Love Nature Forum we hope to be able to further promote responsible dog walking on our sites and introduce tangible solutions so that walkers enjoy the natural landscape in a way that minimises their impact on the environment.

Discussions on the day focused not only on human and animal behaviour but also on the lesser know concerns related to disturbance of ground-nesting birds, the alarming levels of toxic pesticides entering the environment from flea treaments and how dog waste is not only increasing the spread of diseases such as neospora but also reducing biodiversity by increasing nitrogen and phospherorus in soils.  [Further information on the impact of pet dogs in natural landscapes can be found using the URL links provided below.]

At Banstead Commons we recognise the benefits of dog walking in nature; improved physical and mental health, the encouragement of social interactions and engagement in the natural world. We strive to remain educated on current research by proactively engaging in events such as this and we hope that through collaboration we can enable our spaces to be enjoyable for all our visitors.

 

You can view the BCC Dog Walkers Code of Conduct on our website by clicking here. 

Further reading can be found by clicking on the following articles: 

Bird mortality rates rising due to pet treatment chemicals found in nests

Beware the dog: the ecological and environmental impacts of pet dogs