Our friendly wildlife group has two important events lined up for July and August.

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 Thursday July 7th at 7.30 pm in the United Reformed Church in Somerton.

Wildlife on the Shores of Somerset ( yes we do have an extensive coastline!)

 An illustrated talk by Nigel Phillips.  

By way of introduction Nigel has written a book on the subject.  This is a stunning book which describes the huge diversity of landscapes and wildlife found along this wonderful coast. It is packed with photographs of coastal habitats and the wildlife that can be found. It has maps and appendices helping to point out what might be seen, and where and when things occur. It includes lists of all the plants, seaweeds, birds, marine creatures, butterflies, grasshoppers and crickets and dragonflies you might find along the shore and on the cliffs and cliff tops.

This is a 120 - page softback flexibound book in full colour.
Move your mouse over the text "Look inside this book!" on the book image (left) to view the contents. For a more detailed look, one extract has been included here - click here to view!

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The price is £19.50 plus £3.50 post and packing (within the UK). Books can be picked up from Nether Stowey, Somerset by arrangement. Natural Time Out publications 37 Castle Street Nether Stowey, Somerset Somerset TA5 1LN.

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Saturday August 17 th at 8 pm,

 at Playses Orchard Farm , Hambridge, TA10 0AP

A Bat Walk and Talk led by the SWT Bat Group.

Somerset Bat Group was formed in 1985 to help protect bats in Somerset
We are affiliated to the Bat Conservation Trust (the national organisation for bat protection) and Somerset Wildlife Trust

Somerset has 15 of the 16 species of British Bats and we still haven’t given up on the 16th. Some species are more common than others and some are endangered. The Bat Group is actively engaged in varied activities to help preserve these fascinating creatures.

Several of our members run Bat Walks in the Summer. We give talks to local groups, install and check bat boxes and during the Winter hold workshops and courses in Bat Care, Analysing Bat Sound, and Bat Identification.

If you are interested in joining us the please contact secretary Adel Avery, 
phone 01749 840240, or send £5 subs to Adel at The Cottage, Nettlebridge, Oakhill, Bath BA3 5AA.

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

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.

The Severn Estuary and Hinkley Point Power Station

The Severn Estuary and Hinkley Point Power Station.

Our public meeting last Thursday ,on a very cold night, was very well received by around 40 members and the presentations by Officers of the Somerset Wildlife Trust were excellent.
Lisa Schneidau talked first about the Severn Estuary  and gave a very clear account of the several options being considered by the UK Government. She explained that Somerset was working with the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts ( RSWT) as well as with other county trusts and groups such as RSPB.The Trusts position is in essence:

•  to oppose 100% the large Cardiff- Weston barrage because it would cause unacceptable damage to the Estuary, and it should be dropped from the list of options.
• The several alternative schemes should be  given more support for development work.
• All development work should be carried out in a transparent manner. The EU Habitats and Birds Directive must be observed.

The national Society ( RSWT) is leading the campaign and more information is available on their web site. Click here
Both speakers were very clear in keeping to the position taken by the Trust. SWT had to be focused on the effect of the proposals on wildlife and could not,  for instance, discuss views about the nature of nuclear power, nor was it possible to simply say that no attempt to  recover energy from the tidal flows should be made.

 
Michelle Osbourne, followed by describing her work to influence  EDF in their consultation phase. This was not easy and it had proved difficult to  deal with a company who had often worked in a very different situation in France and under different planning rules. By using projections of the planned site layout she highlighted areas where allowances for wildlife could be made given a willingness to discuss and agree modifications. The enormous scale of the work proposed and its impact on an area much larger than the basic footprint for the power plant was well made. The likely effect on the estuary due to the much increased cooling water supply required by the power station was shown and described. Despite the fact that this project was being developed under the UK Government's new planning rules it is to be hoped that public opinion will continue to be important and SWT hopes to continue the debate.EDF have a web site with descriptions of the project. Click here.

For both these two projects SWT hopes that all members will give  their support in the ongoing discussions and negotiations for the future of wildlife in a large part of North Somerset.
There was a very good discussion after the talks with questions and answers form the speakers.
Without any hesitation I would recommend all Members of the Trust and anyone else concerned about wildlife in Somerset, to give their full support to Somerset Wildlife Trust where Lisa and Michelle are giving a very balanced and professional approach to these complicated challenges.

Severn Estuary and Hinkley Point

Update on our next public meeting.
I'm pleased to report that we now have two key speakers  on Thursday 11th January.
Lisa Schneidau, Conservation Director for Somerset Wildlife Trust will be supported by Michelle Osbourn who is the Planning and Advocacy Officer for the Trust and who amongst other matters has been following the Hinkley Point development. Lisa will talk about the Various schemes under consideration for the Severn Estuary.

On May 6th 2009 Haydn Cullen-Jones MSc., F.N.I gave a talk to the Ross Science Society on the subject:
The Severn Barrage Controversy.
On their web site is this image which gives an intriguing insight into this proposed project.

Welcome to the home page of the Ross Science Society ( Web link here: )

Hinkley Point
For more information on Hinkley Point you can go to the EDF web site. Link here:
While I'm looking at this issue you can also see how the safety side of the project is being dealt with by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate by going to their web site, link here.

They show this photo of what I assume is the intended site.