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Local Orgs Conservation Trust Chairmans Report 2002
Local Orgs Conservation Trust Chairmans Report 2002
| Chairmans Report 2002 |
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| Parish Organisations - Bergh Apton Conservation Trust | |||
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BERGH APTON CONSERVATION TRUST - AGM, 25 September 2002 Chairman’s Annual Report The Trust augmented its established activities in several exciting ways this year. As we grow in confidence, we are beginning to be more outward-looking and this was exemplified by our all-day excursion to see sites of contrasting conservation significance in Suffolk, on 9 June. At Sizewell beach, in the morning, we saw the distinctive and beautiful plants of mobile coastal shingle in full flower; Tony Davy demonstrated the ecological restoration work at Sizewell that he had worked on, with his team, for more than 12 years. The timeless medieval deer park at Staverton, visited after lunch, could hardly have been more different. The ancient oaks that extend over most of the park have had their lives prolonged by pollarding and many of these trees are well over 400 years old, with twisted, hollow branches and decomposing wood that provide an abundance of homes for animals, from owls to beetles, not to mention fungi. Another innovation was the hugely enjoyable midsummer barbecue and bonfire, held on a perfect evening on the ‘pageant’ field (22 June), courtesy of Christopher and Liz Meynell . This complemented the now customary and excellently attended Christmas party at Flint Cottage (15 December). We also participated in various ways in the highly memorable, major village event of the year – Kairos (Sculpture Trail 2002). Our members managed the Church car park for the 6 days of the Trail, which also allowed us to promote the Trust and its activities to the visitors. It is a great pleasure to record a subsequent donation of £2000 to the Trust from the BACAT Steering Committee. The management of our own reserve on the monthly ‘work days’ was largely in the nature of consolidation. An exception to this was our first foray into the northern part, adjacent to Church meadow, where we planted a boundary hedge and various trees in what was a huge bed of nettles, and built a rustic seat on the high point. Robert Fox again assisted with selective herbicide to control nettles and we have subsequently cut residual nettle beds on a memorably painful work day. We have continued to coppice sycamore, in order to diversify stand structure and ‘release’ young oaks from competition. Cutting of bracken has dramatically reduced its density and inhibited its spread; we have also maintained steps, kept paths open and cleared shrubby re-growth from the grassy ‘greens’. The vegetation in the experimental rabbit-proof exclosures has, so far, responded satisfactorily to allowing the rabbits back in. The mature broom and gorse are surviving well, even though the field layer has been closely grazed. The posts installed to encourage solitary bees (pre- drilled with burrows to save them effort) were successful in a way that we had not anticipated: not only did leaf-cutter bees move in, but their pupae were subsequently discovered by woodpeckers and the holes are now a lot larger. We have also been active on a broader front. The rank growth on our wildflower bank on the closed landfill site, because of excessive nutrient enrichment, is still a cause for concern. We made another early summer cut, thanks to Robert Waters and his brush cutter, and removed the cuttings. Two of our winter work days were devoted to renovating and replanting parts of the ancient boundary hedge of the Tenwinter bequest field. Water quality in the borehole installed at the edge of our reserve has been duly monitored by the Environment Agency. We have now received two reports on ground-water quality and neither has revealed anything untoward. However, we plan to keep a close eye on these reports, which will become increasingly valuable and informative as the time series builds up. At the last AGM Robert Kerry and Lorie Lain-Rogers were re-elected to serve as trustees for a further three years. The trustees met three times during the year: on 28 November 2001 and 21 February and 11 July 2002. At the first meeting James Savill was elected Treasurer, and the Chairman and Secretary were both re-elected. We are most grateful to Robert Waters, the retiring Treasurer, for his hard work and prudent financial management on our behalf. After the AGM, David Lester gave a presentation of stunningly good natural history slides. Our annual fungus foray was on 14 October. Reliable old favourites included the clump of fascinating earthstars on our reserve and the more sinister deathcaps on the Church meadow. Despite (or because of?) the lack of a real fungus expert, we found two new species, even though it was our seventh foray on and around the reserve. Georgie Butterworth and Sandie Schröder produced accounts of this afternoon in the Bergh Apton Newsletter from splendidly complementary perspectives. However, they share the excitement of seeing slowworms and a weasel, courtesy of Michael Hubbard, as well as the fungi! The participants on David Lester’s spring evensong bird- walk around Rockland Broad (1 May) were rewarded by seeing two grasshopper warblers and a beautiful sunset, followed by an unusual conjunction of five planets in the clear night sky. The Bergh Apton hedgerow survey team, led as usual by Bob Kerry, surveyed hedges along Threadneedle Street from the Village Hall to the crossroads with Mill Road on the evening of 24 July. Another delightful evening walk took us around the Brooke Park lakes on 3 July (by kind invitation of Martin Holl), where we found examples of the largest swan mussel shells recorded in Norfolk. The annual butterfly walk with David Lester (14 July) produced a rather disappointing tally of butterflies but, in compensation, five species of dragonfly were recorded from Robert Water’s pond. We were back at Robert’s pond (and the nearby River Chet) on 11 August for pond dipping. Once again the mud and water proved irresistible to children and Annelise Savill was ably assisted by the knowledgeable and eagle-eyed Conrad Stewart. This year we measured water pH (acidity/alkalinity) and temperature, as well as seeing a good range of aquatic beasties. Unlike last year, the evening scheduled for bat-detecting (4 September) was beautiful and David Lester picked up both types of pipistrelle and one noctule, with his acoustic bat detector, on the walk between Bergh Apton Church and Brooke. Clearly, this has been another dynamic and successful year for Bergh Apton Conservation Trust, with more activities than ever before and continuing support from our members. As our funds accumulate, we look forward to being able to conserve more biodiversity in the village by purchasing further reserves when suitable opportunities arise.
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