Pusschair & Wheelchair Access at Rimac

Members of the Louth Area Group have been busy on three occasions recently helping Lizzie Lemon, the Warden at RIMAC, cut back overgrown pathways. The paths need to be kept clear to enable easy access for those who are being pushed and wheeled around this wonderful wildlife area where the orchids are in bloom whilst bees and butterflies are taking advantage of a whole variety of colourful wild flowers.
Many thanks to Dave, Louise, Graham, Anne, Pauline, Viv, Mike and Ray who wielded the spades.
The next meeting of the Louth Area Group for members and non-members will be at Legbourne Woods at 7.00 pm on Friday 26 June when Warden Rob Lidstone-Scott will explain how the woodlands have been developed by careful management.

Common Blue, Polyommatus icarus

Germander Speedwell, Veronica chamaedrys

Statement on Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon

The Wildlife Trusts issued the following statement today:

Wednesday 10th June 2015

In response to the announcement that the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon has been granted planning consent, Joan Edwards, Head of Living Seas for The Wildlife Trusts said: ‘We support the Government’s targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to tackle climate change and increase the proportion of energy generated from renewable sources. Whilst renewable energy projects could be seen to be helping to tackle climate change, they are still developments with potentially adverse impacts on wildlife, a carbon footprint of their own and associated costs. It is important that all elements of the development stack up. Hence we strongly believe in ‘right technology, right place’.

The Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon should be seen as a test case for a new type of development, in which there is still uncertainty about the environmental impacts, as much of the impact assessment work was based on modelling. Therefore we want to see the proposed mitigation strictly adhered to, and we believe that monitoring should be carried out over a number of years before any other lagoons are built. Swansea is a far smaller development than other tidal lagoons proposed in the Severn Estuary. The proposed lagoons at Cardiff, Newport and Bridgwater Bay are in areas that have multiple European conservation designations. Therefore any environmental impacts are likely to be on a far greater scale and we are concerned about plans to develop these lagoons, without first learning lessons from the development in Swansea Bay.

We still have strong concerns about where the rock to build the lagoon walls will come from, particularly the proposed source at Dean Quarry on the south Cornwall coast. Dean Quarry is in the Manacles Marine Conservation Zone where plans for a new breakwater and jetties (needed to transport the rock out by sea) could result in significant damage to the designated habitat features as well as having impacts on marine mammals. We welcome the decision by the Department for Communites and Local Government (DCLG) to withdraw the permitted development rights for the terrestrial development, calling on the need for a full Environmental Impact Assessment.’

*****

The statement contains a lot of good sense and there are difficult balances to be struck, but I think it lacks acknowledgement of the climate change emergency we and the wildlife are facing.  Unless we cease to burn fossil carbon fuels in quick order there will be no marine mammals to conserve in the acid, anoxic ocean and 'designated habitat features' will become redundant in a warmer world.  Moving to a zero-carbon world as fast as physically, rather than politically, possible has to be the top priority for any organisation concerned with wildlife conservation.

Biff Vernon 10/06/2015

Life on the Verge

Life on the Verge was a project run by the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, coordinated by Mark Schofield, to map the distribution of wildflowers on the road verges in the Lincolnshire Wolds and limestone areas.  It drew attention to the invaluable resource and refuges that road verges have become, now that intensive agriculture has removed much of the native flora from most of the landscape.  The project called for better management of the verges to protect what is left of the species once abundant across the county.

Plantlife have just launched a nationwide campaign to promote understanding of the value of road verges and have written an open letter to local authorities responsible for road verge management:

Our open letter

Dear Sir/Madam

Please adopt Plantlife's guidelines for managing road verges to benefit wild flowers and other nature. I know that road verges are under considerable pressure. Priorities for safety and access, along with budget constraints and difficulties with the collection of litter and grass clippings can mean that enhancing their wildlife value is often low on the list. But we believe that the adoption of a few basic principles will improve our verges for nature, bringing benefits for wildlife, for us and for future generations.

Yours faithfully,

Someone who cares about wildlife on our verges

You can support the campaign by signing the letter on the Plantlife website.

REPORT - LAG VISIT WHISBY 22 MAY 2015

It was a delight to see children amongst the 27 people who turned up at the Whisby Reserve for an evening walk and listen through the woods and around the lakes. 15 of us were from Louth, 10 came from other LWT areas whilst a couple of people out for a stroll joined us during our tour!

Our guide, Warden Grahame Hopwood, was able to tell us about the project management to increase the density of vegetation, particularly Blackthorn, to provide good nesting sites for our target species for the evening - the Nightingale. However, our visit was late in the ‘singing time’ and despite the best efforts of Graham’s ears we only heard Blackcaps, Blackbirds and a Garden warbler calling. We kept reassuring him that we did understand and that we were enjoying the sight of a mass of purple Marsh orchids and an island full of gulls and waders.

In fact the Black-headed gulls were in very good voice, if somewhat raucous! They had fluffy chicks as did the Canada geese but we not sure whether the 3 Mediterranean gulls were nesting or resting. The tiny Great crested grebe chicks spent a lot of time hopping on and off their mother’s back. The gull chicks stayed on land away from the pike which are the primary predators of young and small birds that use the lake.

Apparently the peak time for hearing Nightingales is around St George’s day and at about 8 o’ clock in the morning. Maybe we can organise a trip in mid-April 2016 to listen to these ferocious little birds defending their territories and then have breakfast in the café. RW

Bird list – mostly seen on the island and around the lake near to the Visitors’ Centre: Great crested grebe, Mute swan, Greylag goose, Canada goose, Shelduck, Gadwall, Mallard, Tufted duck, Moorhen, Coot, Oystercatcher, Mediterranean gull, Black-headed gull, Swift, Swallow, Blackbird, Blackcap, Garden warbler, Chiffchaff, Magpie, Rook, Wood pigeon.

Politics and Nature Consevation

"State of nature in the EU: biodiversity still being eroded, but some local improvements observed"

That's the headline introducing the latest reports on wildlife and habitats across the European Union.  If we are genuinely interested in and concerned about our wildlife we need to get political.

"The majority of habitats and species in Europe have an unfavourable conservation status despite significant improvements for many species in recent years, according to a new technical report published by the European Environment Agency (EEA) today. The report presents the most comprehensive European overview on the conservation status and trends of the habitats and species covered by the European Union’s (EU) two nature directives. Building on the reports submitted by EU member states, the report contributes to policy discussions in the context of the EU 2020 Biodiversity Strategy."

These two reports show the invaluable work that the EU has been doing over recent years and the importance of the continuation of the work into the future.

Follow these links for more information:

State of Nature in EU
SOER 2015 — The European environment — state and outlook 2015

And get the full reports here:

Download Synthesis Report

Download Technical Report

The synthesis report informs future European environmental policy in general and its implementation between 2015 and 2020 in particular. It includes a reflection on the European environment in a global context, as well as chapters summarising the state of, trends in, and prospects for the environment in Europe.

Foreword

The European environment | State and outlook 2015

The European Union has provided global environmental leadership for

some 40 years. This report synthesises the information resulting from

four decades of implementation of a well-defined and ambitious EU policy

agenda. It represents the tip of the knowledge available to EEA and its

network, Eionet.

The overall findings point to successes in reducing environmental pressures.

These achievements are especially remarkable when seen in the context of

vastly changed European and global settings over the past decades. Without

a strong policy agenda, the large growth of the economy over this period

would have resulted in much stronger impacts on ecosystems and human

health. The EU has demonstrated that well designed, binding policies work

and deliver huge benefits.

In the 7th Environment Action Programme, 'Living well, within the limits

of our planet', the EU formulates an engaging vision of the future to 2050:

a low carbon society, a green, circular economy and resilient ecosystems, as

the basis for citizens' well-being. Yet, looking ahead, this report, like its 2010

predecessor, highlights major challenges linked to unsustainable systems

of production and consumption and their long-term, often complex,

and cumulative impacts on ecosystems and people's health. In addition,

globalisation links Europeans to the rest of the world through a number

of systems that enable the two-way flow of people, finance, materials and

ideas.

This has brought us many benefits alongside concerns around the

environmental impacts of our linear buy-use-dispose economy, our

untenable dependency on many natural resources, an ecological footprint

that exceeds the planet's capacity, external environmental impacts on

poorer countries, and unequal distribution of the socio-ecological benefits

from economic globalisation. Achieving the EU 2050 vision remains far from

self-evident. Indeed the very idea of what it means to live within planetary

limits is something that we have a hard time grasping.

What is clear, however, is that transforming key systems such as the

transport, energy, housing and food systems lies at the heart of long‑term

remedies. We will need to find ways to make them fundamentally

sustainable, by decarbonising them, making them much more resource

efficient and making them compatible with ecosystem resilience. Also

relevant is the redesign of the systems that have steered these provisioning

systems and have created unsustainable lock-ins: finance, fiscal, health,

legal and education.

The EU is leading the way through policies such as the 7th Environment

Action Programme, the 2030 Climate and Energy package, the Europe 2020

Strategy and the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. These

and other policies share similar goals and in different ways seek to balance

social, economic and environmental considerations. Implementing and

strengthening them smartly can help to push science and technological

frontiers in Europe, create jobs and enhance competitiveness, while

common approaches to solving shared problems make full economic sense.

As a knowledge actor, the EEA and its partners are responding to these

challenges by designing a new knowledge agenda that links supporting

policy implementation to an increased understanding of how to achieve

more systemic long-term objectives. This is guided by innovations that

break out of silo-thinking, facilitate information sharing and integration and

provide new indicators to enable policymakers to compare economic, social

and environmental performance. Last but not least, foresight and other

methods will be increasingly used to inform the pathways towards 2050.

The opportunities and challenges are equally huge. They require common

purpose, commitments, efforts, ethics and investments from all of us.

Starting in 2015, we have 35 years to ensure that the children born today

will live on a sustainable planet by 2050. This may seem like a distant future,

but many of the decisions we make today will decide whether and how we

are going to deliver on this societal project. I hope that the content of the

SOER 2015 will support everyone who is looking for evidence, understanding

and motivation.

Hans Bruyninckx,

Executive Director

DAWN CHORUS DAY

As Saturday 2 May was dawn Chorus Day and as I had woken at 6.00 am and on the move by 6.30 am I decided to go outside to appreciate the bird song. The wind had dropped and the sun was shining. By the time I had gone round the corner of the house I could heard a Robin and a Wren. One of the four resident Blackbirds was on good voice in the neighbours Ash tree where he was soon joined by a Chaffinch. The other Blackbirds were hopping around in the grass waiting for an apple core or some bread crumbs.
After a short time I walked down Charles Street where as always I was greeted by a cacophony of noise from about 20 Sparrows that live in the hedges opposite the tennis courts. I saw but did not hear a small charm of Goldfinches that flitted over my head. Blue tits and a couple more Robins were declaring their territorial boundaries and of course the Mallards were in good voice on the river - I am not sure whether they count as part of a dawn chorus!
I was amazed to see how many market traders were ready for business. The sight of St James spire over the roof tops reminded me about the nesting Peregrines. I kept looking up and saw the pigeons on the stone work - then a streak of white with sleek wings and tail crossed the lens of my binoculars. I had seen one of the Peregrines moving fast towards the west.
The Great tit shouting,'..teacher, teacher' form my garden fence and the noisy Collared doves and Wood pigeons were quite an anti-climax after the flashing falcon. Nevertheless I recommend a stroll around the garden in the very early morning at this time of year.

Ray Woodcock

Mammals of Lincolnshire - Chris Manning

Friday 13th March 2015

Chris Manning, the Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union's mammals recorder, gave us a tour of the many species of mammals found in our county.  And there really are quite a few; in order of appearance:

Hedgehog
Sperm Whale  (March 2012)
Shrews, Common, Pygmy and Water
Mole
Vole, Field and Bank
Rat, Brown and Black
Mouse, Wood, Yellow Necked (only one record!), House, Harvest, Hazel-Dormouse (reintroduced 2002 Chambers Wood)
Water Vole
Mink
Otter
Brown Hare
Red Fox
Pine Martin (extinct 100 years ago but was in Chambers Wood)
Stoat
Weasel
Polecat
Ferret
Badger
Deer, Chinese Water, Muntjac, Red, Roe, Sika, Fallow
Seal, Grey, Common, Hooded.

Chris talked about each species in turn, focussing particularly on their Lincolnshire distributions and, for the non-natives, their introduction histories. He stressed how there were many gaps in our records and explained the work of the Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union in recording species and how members of the public could play a valuable role in improving the records by sending their sightings in to the LNU. 

We've lost a few mammals from Lincolnshire, the pine martin only relatively recently.  There are plans to help the pine martins spread from their Scottish populations, southwards.  See the Pine Martin Recovery Project.

Reintroduction of the Lynx to Britain is a more ambitious plan, but with the growing deer populations there are good reasons to think this once native mammal might well fit comfortably within our ecosystem again.  See the Lynx UK Trust for the plans to reintroduce this cat to Britain after an absence of perhaps over a thousand years.

In the Q&A discussion at the end of the evening Chris Manning suggested such reintroduction might well be feasible.