This Saturday CPRE are celebrating Earth Day with three interesting talks in the beautiful surroundings of Langford Lakes. Earth Day talks
Lynn Trigwell Lynn is a Landscape Architect who has worked in both the private and public sectors. Since 2018 she’s been Head of Climate and Environment for Wiltshire Council. She oversees a wide range to services delivered by the Council in partnership with local communities and local interest groups, landowners and managers, statutory bodies and 3rd sector organisations such as Wiltshire Wildlife Trust and the RSPB. These areas include Archaeology, Landscape, Urban Design and Ecology and in February this year Climate was added. Lynn will be speaking about some of the activities that her teams are working on and share some of the exciting new pilot work they are supporting on the council’s own landholdings. Balancing the challenges and opportunities for our natural environment in Wiltshire. Alex Atkinson Alex oversees the management the Wiltshire Wildlife Trusts 20 southern reserves, including lowland bog, ancient woodland and everything on the successional scale between the two. Restoring natural processes - practical examples for a managed landscape. Peter Thompson Peter Thompson originally trained as an agronomist, advising farmers for 10 years. He then went on to work for the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, as their Farmland Ecology adviser, giving guidance to land managers across UK farms. He covers a wide range topics on countryside issues in the talks he gives and leads many training events related to the management of habitats and the wildlife that lives there. He ran the pilot scheme looking into the potential of “Farmer Clusters” for Natural England – which of course has now been widely adopted across the UK. Now “retired”, amongst many other activities, Peter is Chair of the Salisbury & District Natural History Society. The countryside’s future – my shot at seeing the wood through the trees Unfortunately, due to the stormy weather we need to cancel this event. We shall let you know if we are able to put it on at another time.
Water vole (c) Steve Deeley The Wiltshire Mammal Group have sent us information about an event showcasing the projects in Wiltshire for controlling American mink, as part of a wider Water vole recovery strategy. The event is being held at the Wiltshire Scout Centre, Potterne Wick, Devizes on Wednesday 27th March. Doors open at 18:15 hrs for refreshments and 18:45 - 21:00 is the timing for the presentations. Professor Tony Martin of the Waterlife Recovery Trust will be their keynote speaker, sharing his experiences and successes. This will be followed by a series of rapid-fire presentations from projects within Wiltshire, providing a platform and route for potential volunteers to get involved, and for projects to learn from each other. Full details about reserving a free ticket can be found here We are running another hedgelaying session at the Community Field (below the Nadder Centre and Skatepark) on Sat 10th Feb starting at 9:30am and finishing at 11:30am. We shall be providing tools and guidance. Just bring a pair of tough gardening gloves and weather appropriate clothing! No prior experience necessary. We'd love your help...
(c) Caroline Legg On Thursday 8th February, we start our evening earlier with the AGM at 7.00pm. Doors and the bar open at 6:30pm. We hope that all our members will be able to attend the AGM.
Sofia Muñoz and Flemming Ulf-Hansen from Natural England (see below) will start their talk on the Hen Harrier Southern Reintroduction Project at 7:30pm. They will share updates about the conservation breeding programme for hen harriers and how the project team are working with local farmers, landowners, game keepers and conservation groups to alleviate concerns about hen harrier recovery in the region. Having disappeared from the mainland as a breeding species by the late 19th century, hen harriers recolonised naturally in the uplands from the northern isles, but continuing illegal persecution of these birds of prey has hampered recolonisation in the south. In August 2022, ten captive hen harriers from a rescue centre in France were transported to the UK and they have spent the last 17 months settling into their new home and adapting to each other. It is hoped that in 2024 these hen harriers will breed and their progeny will be released wild into the arable landscape of Wiltshire. If you'd like to read up about their project in advance, please see the Project's blog Flemming Ulf-Hansen, Lead Adviser Salisbury Plain and Hen Harrier Southern Reintroduction at Natural England [B.Tech. Environmental Science, MSc Plant Science, PhD Ecology] Sofia Munoz, Senior Adviser Hen Harrier Southern Reintroduction Complex Case Unit [BSc (Hons.) Biology, specialization Zoology, MSc Biology Conservation] Do come and help with hedgelaying in the Community Field on Saturday 3rd February from 11am to 1pm. You'll learn traditional techniques for hedge laying and help in the development of a healthy habitat for wildlife. No prior experience needed and tools will be provided. It's forecast to be fine, so bring weather appropriate clothing and some tough gardening gloves. On Thursday 1st of February at 6pm, we will be screening a series of short films on the theme of ocean plastics at the New Vic (Victoria Hall) in Tisbury. Doors and bar open at 5.45 pm. All welcome...it's £1 per ticket for members and non-members. Free for the Under 21s.
With a total duration of about 1 hour, we will be showing a diversity of documentaries and animated films. The focus will be on how the plastic we use makes it into the oceans, the impact of our consumption activities on the health of the aquatic ecosystems around the world, and what all of us can do about it. It’s not all gloom and doom, the films are sad and uplifting in equal measures, giving us clues as to what we can do to help understand and alleviate the plastic problem. The short films are informative, cinematographically innovative and thought-provoking, and some have been filmed in remote beautiful locations such as Bali. We will start with four animated films, ‘The Beauty’ (2019), ‘Are you eating plastic for dinner?’ (2019), ‘Shelfish’ (2019) and ‘Plastic is everywhere’ (2023). We will continue with a series of short documentaries, including ‘If you give a beach a bottle’ (2022) and ‘Voice above water’ (2021), both winners of multiple Film Festival awards. Finally, we will end with three documentaries by Ed Scott-Clarke, film director and producer, who will be available at the end of the screenings for a Q&A. First, a longer documentary ‘Plastic Shores’ (2012) followed by two short documentaries produced for the CNN. Between 11 am and 1 pm on Saturday the 3rd of February, we shall be hedgelaying in the Community Field, below the Nadder Centre. All helpers gratefully welcomed! No prior experience necessary.
In January 2024, our Young Nature Watch activity took on a different guise: we set a competition for our members, to photograph a flower, au naturel between 30th December and 2nd January. This was in conjunction with the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland’s annual flower hunt.
We were delighted to receive several entries from around the area. These were collated and submitted to BSBI as a group entry. The winner of the under 10’s competition was Rose McLean for her super photo of some catkins, trembling in the breeze and shedding their pollen. Well done, Rose and thank you to all those who entered. Emma Procter Photo (c) Wiltshirewildlife.org
We are very proud of our committee member Debbie Carter, who was recently awarded with a Lifetime Achievement Award (jointly with Andrew, her husband) at Wiltshire Wildlife Trust’s volunteer celebration event on the 1st of December 2023. The Committee and Oysters Coppice volunteer group are extremely grateful to Debbie (and Andrew!), for their dedication to nature conservation, protecting our local natural sites and helping others learn about our local wildlife through all these years. You can read more about the awards on Wiltshire's Wildlife Trust website: https://www.wiltshirewildlife.org/news/volunteer-awards-2023. And you can also listen to an interview with Debbie which was broadcasted on BBC Radio Wiltshire's Sue Davis programme. This can be listened as a podcast of the 08 Dec 2023, minute 2:40 (available for 29 days on BBC Sounds): https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0gsw1tf Inés López-Dóriga |
Photo: Avocets (Izzy Fry)
The headers display photos taken by our members. Do get in touch via the Contact Form if you'd like to submit a photo for selection.
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