A TEAM of conservationists has embarked on its annual mission to clear the county’s hedgerows of a plant which can be deadly to animals.

Dinah Harris, from Hailey, has pulled together a team of volunteers in an effort to root out the dreaded ragwort.

The weed can cause liver disease and even death in horses, cattle and other wild animals – it is also poisonous to humans.

The team has just three weeks while the plant flowers to find it, remove it from verges and then burn it, which stops it going to seed and spreading further.

Miss Harris is leading a team of volunteers from the Oxfordshire branch of the British Horse Society and workers from Oxfordshire County Council.

She said: “The problem with ragwort is it’s very poisonous, poisonous when it’s eaten and it can be absorbed through the skin.

“It’s dangerous whether it’s green and growing, wilting or if it’s trodden into a high crop.”

For more than 10 years, Miss Harris and another four workers have taken part in the two-fold annual attack — pulling up and burning the weed, then educating farmers and landowners about its dangers.

Miss Harris added: “We are not just going around the county ripping plants out, it is a concerted effort of letting people know for their – and their animals – safety.

“It really is a mammoth task. But I feel very strongly because once it gets out of control, we have had it, it is everywhere.

“Because it has so many seeds that drop out, it could go on indefinitely.”

The team removes the ragwort plants by hand, before bagging them up and taking them to be burned.

Miss Harris and the Oxfordshire branch of the British Horse Society raise £5,000 each year to pay for the equipment and man-power to get rid of the ragwort.

The money is collected through fundraising evenings and a horse show.

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