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Village Organisations Conservation Trust Chairmans Report 2006
Village Organisations Conservation Trust Chairmans Report 2006
| Chairmans Report 2006 |
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| Parish Organisations - Bergh Apton Conservation Trust | |||
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BERGH APTON CONSERVATION TRUST - AGM, 4 October 2006 Chairman’s Annual Report This has been a truly exceptional year: for the first time since its inception twelve years ago, with the acquisition of Church Plantation, the Trust is now in a position to expand and diversify its nature reserve. Not only have we agreed the purchase of 5.5 acres of marsh and wet woodland from Robert Waters but we have also have raised a large sum of money that will cover the purchase and enable us to address substantial management desiderata. The new land will extend our existing reserve, close to Bergh Apton Church, down into the valley wetland. It comprises marshes, tall fen, wet woodland and a large pond. It will also provide us with a substantial frontage on the River Chet. This new acquisition will complement our existing range of habitats and landscape, by including some of those wetland habitats nationally most threatened. The marshes and pond will also present many new challenges for management. We will be seeking enthusiastic new members to help with this exciting work. The combined reserve area will be nearly 10 acres. We are very grateful to BACAT (Cairn Sculpture Trail, 2005), the villagers of Bergh Apton and environs (who responded magnificently to our public appeal, just before Christmas) and the Heritage lottery fund (Awards for All scheme) for their prompt and unstinting generosity. The legal processes are grinding slower than hoped but we expect to take possession before the end of the year. Another successful development was our two-day involvement in Wild about Norfolk (9-10 September), this year associated with the British Association’s September Festival of Science, which had come to Norwich for the first time since 1984. This was an excellent opportunity to raise our profile among local conservation organizations and make useful contacts. Our display attracted many visitors, both old friends and members of the public at large. We thank Bob Kerry, Stephanie Crome, Lorie Lain Rogers, Dennis Moye and James Savill for planning and manning the whole enterprise. Some of our meetings were a little different this year. The annual fungus foray around the reserve was led this year by Colin Jacobs of Lowestoft, who proved an erudite guide to this difficult and sometimes arcane group of organisms (16 October 2005). Once again we had a ‘Breakfast with the birds’ (7 May) or, more strictly, after the birds: a well-attended early bird walk, led by David Lester, was rounded off with a full English breakfast at the Davys’. Jacquie Ratcliffe organized a fascinating ‘Honey Bee Event’ with local beekeeper Peter Sunderland and members of the Norfolk Beekeepers’ Association (28 May). Many of our members enjoyed being kitted out in protective suits and some got to close quarters with the bees. For our annual wildflower walk (11 June), we returned to the Ted Ellis Reserve at Wheatfen, where we had spent a soggy evening the summer before. This was a totally different experience. More by luck than design, our visit coincided with their ‘Swallowtail day’. We were rewarded for going back with the sight of Swallowtail eggs on the leaves of their rare host-plant (milk parsley, Peucedanum palustre) and many of the beautiful butterflies on the wing. This almost eclipsed the interesting wetland plants, seen to much better advantage on this sunny summer’s day than on our previous visit. Annelise Savill again deployed her skills with aquatic life, leading the young and young-at-heart pond dippers into Robert Waters’ pond (soon to be ours) and the River Chet (9 July). Derek Howlett kindly came and set up his light trap (1 September), this time in the Churchyard near to a power supply, as his generator was on the blink; we attracted many late-season moths (and hence some bats) but disappointingly few different species. A small group of enthusiasts were more or less regular participants in monthly work days, attending to the quotidean conservation tasks: culling sycamores, mending steps and fences, cutting nettles and bracken, maintaining recently planted hedges, raking-off the wildflower bank etc. Another increment to the great village hedge survey was made (17 June). The purely social events still marked the turns of the year: the Christmas party at Flint Cottage (17 December) and the midsummer barbecue and bonfire (24 June); as ever we thank the Meynells for combustibles and the use of their field. After the business of the last AGM, there was a slide show illustrating some of the beautiful flowers seen on our Cyprus trip the preceding Easter. At the last AGM, Michael Rolf was elected a trustee and Stephanie Crome was re-elected. We are very grateful to David Lester, who retired after a long period as a trustee, for his huge contribution to our activities and look forward to his continuing involvement with the Trust. The trustees met three times during the year: 9 November 2005, and 2 February and 21June 2006. At the first meeting, Tony Davy, Stephanie Crome and Bob Kerry were re-elected chairman, secretary and treasurer, respectively. Sandie Schoeder kindly continued to act as Membership Secretary. Overall it has been an eventful and exciting year, during which foundations for our future conservation opportunities have been laid. We expect to see the practical outcome of this activity, in the form of our new reserve in the very near future. This of course is only the beginning: a whole new series of challenges will need to be addressed in learning to manage wetlands.
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