The first attempt to define the aims of Management are contained in the
minutes of the meeting of the Biological Sub-Committee on 9 January,
1964 (see appendix to minutes of the Management Committee meeting on 14
April, 1964). These record:
'The Management Plan would state the objectives of the Reserve.
The Sub-Committee consider that the Reserve serves primarily as a
winter refuge for wildfowl but is also an area of great
biological and geological interest with increasing educational
and recreational uses. The Plan would, therefore, make
prescriptions for integrating wildlife conservation and public
use.'
The main object of management stems both from this initial suggestion
and from the results of a survey of people visiting and using the
Reserve. It can be stated as: 1: To conserve the fauna, flora and
habitats of the Reserve in order to provide an
area of high educational
value.
One has, therefore, to steer a course between encouraging people to use
the Reserve and to understand what is in it, while yet not making it
too popular. This is necessary so that both the natural history and the
sense of 'space, quietness, and loneliness' are conserved. The
prescriptions of Chapter V aim at establishing a form of'biological
open-air museum' and maintaining the sense of quietness and sky which
is so highly valued by its visitors. The aim of Management can be
broken down into the following trajectories:
Wildlife conservation
Education
Recreation
Research
Miscellaneous
