Heart of the Levels Group "change of management".

The Somerset Wildlife Trust July e newsletter to volunteers carried this news item!

"Change of Area Group Chair

David German has decided to step down from the position of Area Chair for Heart of The Levels Area Group.  The Trust would like to thank David for all he has achieved for SWT during his time as an Area Group Chair.  We would like to welcome Rosemary Webber as the new Chair of the group.  Rosemary has been a committee member for many years and is a Wildlife Watch leader too. "

The big question

Our local wildlife conservation group has frequently thought about what we are trying to do and whether it is what our members expect and so in the next copy of the SWT magazine we hope to show the following open letter to our members. But you can read it first.

Yes, but what do you do? I've been asked that a few times and considering all the meetings and events we organise, I see it as a wake-up call.

It gives me the feeling that we're not making much impact. I'm still searching for a sensible answer but we do have options.

We can play it safe with a few meetings on easy subjects or we can become much more radical and arrange discussions on the bigger issues. These could be changes to local planning rules and the status of local wildlife sites, delays in setting up marine conservation areas or the effect on wildlife of anticipated changes to farming subsidies.

We could do more to support local campaigns like the appeal for the Chalkhill Blue Butterfly project.

Our national body, The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts, is celebrating 100 years since it was set up and pursues nationally important campaigns including how the High Speed train projects will affect wildlife. Should we get more involved with these? Check out their website.

What do YOU think? We'd like to know but whatever we do, we need your active support. Find out more and how to contact us at:

http://www.somersetwildlife.org/Heart_of_the_Levels

Anger over plans to weaken EU wildlife protection | The Wildlife Trusts

Anger over plans to weaken EU wildlife protection | The Wildlife Trusts

The national organisation supporting the Wildlife Trusts around the counties has a web page( see above link) to communicate its views on important national issues. Somerset Wildlife Trust is very involved and we want to keep our MP's informed of our views. Please visit this web site to keep up to date on development

Being a volunteer with the Wildlife Trust is almost a full time job and in another short briefing here are some of the recent activities I find myself involved in.

No sooner had I sent off my comments to my MP and the Gov on the NPPF ( see my earlier post) than I learn about the Neighbourhood Planning Bill  ( which I suppose I had heard about but not taken too seriously). It might be very significant and I've started finding out what its implications might be. I think there is a consultation period now so that could important but what should we say?

I might join the local history society to find our more about the history of the hedges round our village and fields. Some are likely to be hundreds of years old. It important from a wildlife point of view to be able to argue against any move to cut them down.

Attended a meeting of the local Area Groups a couple of weeks ago, which is a good place to find out how other groups are getting on . We can them make our views known to the Trust. We have some differences about how we volunteers would like more support  in trying to get better web site coverage and in making contact with our members. An ongoing discussion. Our Group had thought about having its own web site but that's on hold at present.

This week have had a local group committee meeting with two guests who might join our committee. The meeting as usual ranged over quite a few topics and might have been a little confusing for our guests. Talked about our future programme of events for 2012. More summer site visits to our local reserves perhaps. Tonight we have a talk about the importance of woodlands and how they function. Hope we have a reasonable turnout.

Yesterday spent most of the day at the HQ of the SWT. First in a meeting of the Private and Community Nature Reserves  Network . Its just a way for land owners with a few acres to get help in managing their land for the benefit of wildlife  and to be able to share their experience. with others.There are about 200 members. Discussed two field events next year with a Botany field trip included

Most of us stayed on to sit in on a presentation by the  manager of the local RSPCA rescue and rehabilitation centre. Its about 10 miles from here and I hope to arrange a visit to see their work and facilities. Very impressive.

Lastly a committee member is hoping to find more people to take a few battery hens from local farmers who are banned from keeping chickens in battery conditions from next Jan. A good idea , not wildlife of course and I don't think we could cope with looking after them. The Hen Welfare Trust will tell you more.

That'll do for this week.

PS Don't forget that the IPCC is meeting this week in Kampla between 18th and 19th. We should hear their latest news and views on climate change.

Local Wildlife Group Five years old!

Sent this brief report off for publication in our Somerset Wildlife Trust magazine. You can read it first here. World scoop!!   There is a 200 word limit on what we can say which is why it is so short!

The Heart of the Levels Group has just celebrated the fifth anniversary of starting our Group.

Five years into a new venture is a good point at which to look back on what we have achieved as a small group of volunteers.

Here are some of my personal highlights.

A talk by Chris Sperring accompanied by live owls was special.

Our one day workshops on Art and Wildlife and recently on Wild Flower

Photography were a great learning experience.

The setting up of our Botany Study Group with the professional help of Dr Anne Bebbington and John Bebbington.

Learning about nature has been inherent in all our activities. Starting a local Wildlife Watch Club was another big step forward.

Funds raised through our activities enable us to make a contribution to SWT Appeals and to support our Watch Club.

We submitted comments to DEFRA on Badgers and the Natural Environment.

We are currently writing a short guide to our local reserves.

Helping SWT set up a new reserves working group for the East Polden Hills is in progress.

Writing a natural history Blog on our activities and environmental issues.

Starting our local group was the best way to learn about wildlife.

News update from Somerset Wildlife Trust

Been seeing a few regular specimens of this lovely Brimstone butterfly. Plus Small Tortoiseshell and the Peacock


A regular feature of running our local Wildlife Group is to take part in meetings with SWT officers to review and comment on issues, plans and choices for future action.
Today's meeting looked at Business plans for 2012 and beyond and big hopes for a living landscape project to cover our Somerset urban area of Taunton.This is a new challenge for us and the local area group.The emphasis this time is to get the community fully involved at the start rather than work up a scheme and hope to implement it. Funding for such a project will be a major aspect of any plans and it will all take some time, probably years, to fully implement.
The Trust also has been working up schemes to get more involved with a living sea project on our northern coastline. Hinkly Point nuclear power station replacement must feature in any plans.
Amongst other matters was the Plantlife International project to "save our meadows" which is important for Somerset
As if that wasn't enough we also reviewed the Trusts understanding of the Big Society.

Orchards.

2010 International Year of Biodiversity.

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Butterfly Conservation.    Drink cider and help the Mistletoe Marble moth.

Traditional Orchards.
April 15th. Details on our Diary Blog.
This is the subject of our next public meeting.

Our speaker is the Project Officer for the National Trust. Read more about their project to conserve Orchards. Click here to go to their web site and here.

Their project is funded by  Natural England.  Click here to go to their report on orchards.

The Peoples Trust for Endangered Species is also running a project to find and record England's remaining traditional orchards. Click here to go to their web site.

Butterfly Conservation have been cooperating with the National Trust to survey orchards for moths. The rare Misletoe Marbled Moth ( Celyphia Woodiana) is described here in a report.

The moth is also reported in the web site of "Bird Guides"with a photo and this recommendation to help the conservation of traditional apple orchards.

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"Butterfly Conservation.  Drink cider and help the Mistletoe Marble moth."

Annual Report of the Heart of the Levels Area Group

Heart of the Levels Group of the Somerset Wildlife Trust.

Chairman’s annual report
10.10.09

This report covers:

• Some of the successful events of the last year.
• The work of the committee and its members.
• Looks forward over the next 12 months.

I am very much aware of the strong support our committee gives whilst helping to support our aims and objectives. Our committee has met 8 times since last September.

Our finances have benefited from careful attention by our Treasurer, for which we are grateful. At the end of Sept we had £749.09 in our local account.

We had gained two new committee members in 2008 but lost one this year due to other commitments. We would welcome at least two more members.

May 19th 2006 was our inaugural meeting but we started setting up our group at the end of 2005 and so we are now four years old.

The Wildlife Trust has settled down some what since the major upheavals in 2008 caused by economic issues and new staff have been settling in through out 2009.

The most significant event has been the start of a new Botany Group based in Langport. SWT members have signed up for a series of monthly classes in basic botany. Proposed and led by Dr Anne Bebbington with the help of John Bebbington it is hoped that it will give members a chance to improve their plant identification skills and possibly lead to an active group able to carry out botanical surveys.

We have organised or supported 13 events in our area. We have six events organised through to April 2010. We have a new programme card which we can make available.

We visited Aller Woods for a fungi foray and a spring woodland flower walk.

We have an email newsletter. Please let us know if you would like a copy.

We made two donations from our funds to the Trusts appeals for work at Westhay and to maintain bluebell woods in general. There are three new small appeals being promoted by the SWT which we will consider shortly.

In advance of the next election, should we hold a meeting to ask our prospective MP’s for their views on important topics. Would you like us to do that?

We are promoting our Arts and Wildlife Workshops in the next edition of the SWT News magazine and depending on the response we will either continue them on a regular basis or perhaps revert to an annual event.

SWT set up two new committees or Forums to enable staff to discuss with members some of the important areas of the Trusts work. 1) The Living Landscape Committee (LCC) this is a major part of the Trusts work load. 2) The Campaigns, Community and Education Committee (CCE) As Chair of our group I attend the CCE meetings about every 3 months or so.

The Trust has also given new support to the Private Nature Reserve Network (PNRN).
It was set up in1996 to help land owners who wanted to encourage wildlife and has around 200 members at present responsible for a total of 355 hectares in all parts of Somerset.

We supported the educational work of the Kingfisher Project which allowed around 250 primary school children from 8 schools, mainly in our area to get first hand experience of wildlife during visits to a wild flower meadow on a farm in Curry Rivel. We would like to see a Watch Group set up in this area.

I expect our activities for the next 12 months will include:

• Organise about 6 indoor meetings through the winter using venues in Curry Rivel , Langport and Somerton.
• Arrange some visits to reserves during the summer months.
• Encourage members to offer to help out with running our meetings and on reserves with practical tasks.
• Get better at communicating with members especially new members so as to make sure we are putting on talks and events which members find interesting.
• Encourage members to get to know our local reserves.
• Respond to wildlife related enquiries put to us by members and even if we don’t know the answer we will find someone who does! Use the Open University web site, iSpot.
• Support the Wildlife Trust in its work wherever we can with our limited resources through positive and constructive comment and fund raising.


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Contacts.


Telephone: David German by email: levelswildlife@btinternet.com
Web site: http:// heartofthelevels.blogspot.com

Details of the SWT and other specialist groups are in the Trusts magazine.

Anyone wanting to read more about our activities will find a lot of information on the SWT web site and our Blog: http:// heartofthelevels.blogspot.com

Brief comment on our group

Just sent this 150 word news item for publication in the Somerset Wildlife Trust magazine. See links on this blog for SWT.
We have our AGM this week which will need a little more detail but not too much!!
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Heart of the Levels Group write up for SWT Mag Oct 05.10.08

Our Group continues to develop which is very encouraging.
More local people know about us and support us in many ways without the formality of being on the committee. That is good for us and for wildlife.
We welcome two new members of the committee which is also very satisfactory.
Good progress continues to save a local wildflower meadow in Curry Rivel. Visits welcome
Our two recent events dealing with wildlife gardening proved very popular and has prompted efforts to develop some form of wildlife gardening club. We hope to link with existing clubs in our area. Visits to member’s gardens, whatever size, will be a main feature. Enquiries welcome.
Our plans for 2009 include a June barbeque and a repeat of our very successful Art and Wildlife workshop.
Finally a huge thank you for all your support.

I recently wrote to our committee to call a meeting and as an example of how we are progressing as we go into our second year here is part of what I said:


Dear all,
Hope you have survived the Xmas/New Year celebrations!
We need to get together for what we loosely call a committee meeting soon.
I'm going to see if a local pub is suitable or there may be some other venue you might like to suggest .
I suggest one of these dates : Tue 23rd or Thur 18th or 25th January.
We need to get our next public meetings organised.

Anything for the agenda?

While you are thinking here are some related current developments which we should (IMHO) have some overview on.
There is a big UN IPCC ( Climate Change committee) report due in Feb which will get a lot of press /media coverage on climate change and will give lots of food for thought on the issue.
All political parties are joining the debate. A lot of claims and statements are being made by "everyone and his dog".
A recent enquiry by the Guardian ( Guardian 3rd Jan http://society.guardian.co.uk/localgovt/story/0,,1981779,00.html ) found that most local councils have no plans to encourage residents to cut carbon emissions apart from recycling.
I would like to write to all our local parish councils to ask them if they have someone who is given a role of dealing with environmental issues and wildlife matters and how they take a view on such issues. This is related to planning to a large extent.
There will soon be big changes( I am reliably informed) in our local Gov as Somerset goes to a unitary authority status. i.e. no district councils. More power to the Parishes!
I understand our MP is quite well qualified on green issues.
So I suggest we ask our MP to come and discuss with us, either as committee or at an open meeting, some or all of these issues and to tell us how he sees the situation.
I see this as simply a way to keep ourselves as well informed as possible and of course to ask questions. I'm sure we will be asked about these matters.
I've even had a gardening club asking me for a talk on climate change and gardens!!
Or we can just meet for a beer!
Finally you may be reassured that I am doing a First Aid course on Sunday at Fyne Court organised by the SWT. Afterwards I will need to practice on someone . Any volunteers?
RSVP

Some earlier posts on a duplicate blog now deleted

Posted 3rd April 2006.
It seems a good idea to start a blog to record some of the activities and events experienced in the process of set up a local conservation group.The opportunity to undertake such a task has been created by the policy being followed by a wildlife organisation which carries out much of its work through locally based volunteers.This blog joins the progress of the task at an early stage a few weeks before holding a public meeting to launch the group on its way and to find more people to help run it.

Posted 18th April 2006.
Since my last post some real progress has been made in finding a treasurer for our new group.A reminder about our first public meeting in May has been sent to several contacts in the local press.Posters to advertise the meeting have been ordered and should be with us in a few days to be placed in village halls, post offices and similar.It was a real pleasure to visit a local RSPB reserve over the Easter break to see herons and egrets nesting and hopefully rearing this years youngsters.

wildlife

wildlife

Quite a lot has happened since my first post on the subject of the Heart of the Levels group of the Somerset Wildlife Trust.
We have now got a Treasurer to look after the small amounts of money we expect to handle. This will include payments to speakers, money collected as donations and spent on tea and coffee at meetings.
We have today run a stall at the local May Fayre with the sole objective of getting our new group some public visability. Despite the cold and cloudy day quite a few people stopped for a chat and took an interest in our new group. We might even get some new members.
The next event is our inaugral public meeting on May 19th which we look forward to with some trepidation.

wildlife conservation

The Heart of the Levels Group is being set up by members of the Somerset Wildlife Trust and
provides a way to meet up with other like-minded individual members, to be kept informed of wild life news at our local level, as well as the work of the Trust at county and national level.
It would be good to hear from anyone involved in this kind of activity.