Langport house building verses conservation of Somerset meadow.

All these wild flowers and grasses I photographed last June in a similar unimproved grassland location some two miles from a meadow under threat from house building. Read about it below.

Broomrape

 Bee Orchid

 Emerging Pyramidal Orchid's

 Geass Vetchling against a Goats-beard

 Bee Orchid

 Quaking -grass

Under the title “ Battle Brewing” in the 15^th March edition, the Langport Leveller reports on the way in which local residents have explained their opposition to a planning application to build 36 houses on “unimproved meadowland that has recently been used for grazing. With the extended flooding on the levels and moors in the last 12 months such grazing land is urgently required by Somerset farmers.

The site itself is described as good quality agricultural land and is a habitat frequented by roe deer,badgers,foxes, barn owls, bats and grass snakes. Other recent and close by housing developments have demonstrably caused, for example , the disappearance of moths and the range of wild plant species they feed off. For many species it has been claimed that the field is their sole local home.An official Peripherals Study prepared for the South Somerset District Council in 2008 identified the land as having the “ highest landscape sensitivity “ and “highest visual impact” when compered to other parcels of land in the study.

There are many other points of objection raised during two local Council meetings. A respected local naturalist John Bebbington asked the Council to take into account the beautiful and rare wild Orchids and butterflies found there including the Brown Hairstreak butterfly.

It any other support was needed to prevent a change in the usage of this agricultural land then the Royal horticultural Society is holding its London Orchid and Botanical Art Show on 12-13 April.

Many people these days grow cultivated orchids in their homes but here in Somerset we have our own beautiful wild plants which we should do everything we can to conserve. Plant lovers can admire in detail some of the worlds best botanic art in London this month. 

Look at :     www.rhs.org.uk/londonshows

Conservative party conspiracy to sabotage climate change progress - Greenpeace UK

Conservative party conspiracy to sabotage climate change progress - Greenpeace UK

If your interested in wildlife and nature and the future of Somerset's wonderful countryside and not forgetting bio diversity then you must watch this!

Eco- therapy! Richard Mabey explains.

There is an interesting comparison between this post and my last. In this post the message is the value of getting involved with nature. In my last post it was all about human beings being totally disconnected from nature in the pursuit of wealth, power and denigration of fellow human beings who dared to say no.


I am rapidly becoming a Richard Mabey fan. Although I've read some of his many books and articles and admired his literary skills nothing has connected with me as much as listening to a BBC video of a programme on BBC World Service.

A friend sent me this photo taken in their garden. Its a common spider which can change its colour to suit its location.


If you are interested in nature or the conservation of wildlife in any way at all then I hope that listening to this programme you will find as I have done a new value, purpose and benefit  in the pursuit of your interest.

Here is a link to the BBC programme recording :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00z9srx/Health_Check_Ecotherapy/


or use this URL


http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00z9srx/Health_Check_Ecotherapy

I have in the last year or two attended a workshop arranged by Somerset Wildlife Trust with MIND on the subject of mental health but I dont recall it as being as relevant as this programme on Eco Therapy.

Wildflowers at the Olympic Park. Should our traditional nature reserves add non native flowers?

Extract from an  article in the Gurdian Newspaper.

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Click here to see the article  Guardian.co.uk

Matthew Appleby.

If you want to see the big ideas coming out of British horticulture, there's no better – or bigger – showcase than the gardens and meadows of the Olympic Park in Stratford.

The 250-hectare site in east London has been filled with 4,000 trees, 300,000 wetland plants, 15,000 square metres of lawns and more than 150,000 perennial plants, in an ambitious scheme designed to delight visitors to the Games and leave a legacy of a permanent park once the Olympics are over.

First, there are the wildflower meadows, 10 football fields-worth of them, carefully planned and sown to reach their peak just in time for the torch's arrival in east London next Friday, and sporting a suitably Olympic gold colour scheme. Wildflowers are having a moment: sales of cornflowers, field poppies and other pollinator-friendly blooms have tripled this year, influenced by Sarah Raven's TV programme Bees, Butterflies And Blooms, and Chelsea show gardens packed with wispy natives.

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Please read the full article.

Interesting comments about the use of non native species which is not a new feature of the English countryside. Many plants seem to have been introduced many years ago.

This links well with the differing points of view generated by the "Fields of Dreams" in South Petherton which are currently benefiting no doubt from the sunshine. By comparison our 4 acre meadow in Curry Rivel is managed to show off plants and flowers which are native to this part of Somerset. Its a challenging thought to consider changing our policy to deliberately  bring in , say , flowers from South Africa or elsewhere. We have a meeting of our management group and I might ask for opinions on the subject. 

Gardens:wildflowers at the Olympic Park

This is serious!

I have recently been re reading "Only One Earth", which was written as a "guide " to the 1972 UN conference on the Global Environment.
All the issues now being reported on by George and others were well known and debated 40 years ago.
Such was the apparent concern that world leaders and Governments prepared and duly signed in 1992 various documents to address the ever growing seriousness of the problems  facing us all. All the reports from Rio +20 are worrying. Below is part of one of those reports.


Just to try and cheer myself up I've added at the end a few photos taken in our local meadow this last week!

Please read on:

How “Sustainability” Became “Sustained Growth” Posted: 22 Jun 2012 06:06 AM PDT The Rio Declaration rips up the basic principles of environmental action. By George Monbiot, published on the Guardian’s website, 22nd June 2012

In 1992 world leaders signed up to something called “sustainability”. Few of them were clear about what it meant; I suspect that many of them had no idea. Perhaps as a result, it did not take long for this concept to mutate into something subtly different: “sustainable development”. Then it made a short jump to another term: “sustainable growth”. And now, in the 2012 Earth Summit text that world leaders are about to adopt, it has subtly mutated once more: into “sustained growth”. This term crops up 16 times in the document, where it is used interchangeably with sustainability and sustainable development. But if sustainability means anything, it is surely the opposite of sustained growth. Sustained growth on a finite planet is the essence of unsustainability. As Robert Skidelsky, who comes at this issue from a different angle, observes in the Guardian today: “Aristotle knew of insatiability only as a personal vice; he had no inkling of the collective, politically orchestrated insatiability that we call economic growth. The civilization of “always more” would have struck him as moral and political madness. And, beyond a certain point, it is also economic madness. This is not just or mainly because we will soon enough run up against the natural limits to growth. It is because we cannot go on for much longer economising on labour faster than we can find new uses for it.” Several of the more outrageous deletions proposed by the United States – such as any mention of rights or equity or of common but differentiated responsibilities – have been rebuffed. In other respects the Obama government’s purge has succeeded, striking out such concepts as “unsustainable consumption and production patterns” and the proposed decoupling of economic growth from the use of natural resources.

Bee Orchid

 Goats Beard in seed with a Grass Vetchling which happened to be nicely placed in front.

 And  grasses which are flowering well right now. This is Quaking Grass

The natural environment has been identified as the major obstacle in the future prosperity of the UK.
Please read the HM Government Document;
National Infrastructure Plan 2011
Click here to view the plan.
Here is an extract from the plan which expands on the views which many people have objected to in the Planning System proposed newNational Planning Policy  Framework:

0. Reforming the planning and consenting systems
   To tackle barriers in planning, the Government is placing the presumption in favour of sustainable development at the heart of the planning system, requiring a positive approach to be taken to plan-making and to decisions on individual planning applications.
   As set out in Chapter 6, as part of implementing the recommendations of the Penfold Review, the Government will:
   

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• ensure the key consenting and advisory agencies have a remit to promote sustainable development as soon as the National Planning Policy Framework is finalised. This will ensure that these bodies consider the impact of their decisions on sustainable economic growth and swiftly approve consents when it is appropriate to do so; and
  
• introduce a 13 week maximum timescale for the majority of non-planning consents, to speed up the consenting process and give certainty to developers. This would take immediate effect for Government agencies.
  In addition, the Government will:
  

• ensure that there is a more effective mechanism for applicants to obtain an award of costs, if there is an appeal against refusal of a planning permission where a statutory consultee has acted unreasonably, through measures to be implemented in summer 2012. The Government will also improve the performance of the key statutory consultees in responding swiftly to applications;
  
• build more flexibility into the new major infrastructure planning process, particularly in the pre-application phase, by summer 2012, as part of a light touch review of the process responding to feedback from users of the regime; and
  
• ensure that compliance with the Habitats and Wild Birds Directives does not lead to unnecessary costs and delays to development, while continuing to support the Directives’ objectives. The Government is reviewing the directives as currently implemented in England by Budget 2012 and is committed to tackling blockages for developments where compliance is particularly complex or has large impacts. In addition, the Government can announce progress on specific projects where compliance has already proved problematic, including Falmouth Harbour. 
  

Reflections of a Curlew: People and Wildlife - A Shared Earth - BBC Recording

Reflections of a Curlew: People and Wildlife - A Shared Earth - BBC Recording

You might find the programme referred to in the link of interest. Just click on the words above. I've reserved three tickets and as far as I can see tickets are still available. ( checked today 20.11.11). 
This is a BBC recording on November 28th at 6.30 pm for a Radio 4  programme  debating world population issues and their effect on Wildlife.The programme will be broadcast on 23rd Dec 20.00 hrs and repeated on the 24th
Its part of a series which I regret I havent picked up on before called "Saving Species"  and this particular programme is titled Population and the Natural World.Its produced by Mary Colwell who amongst other things writes the Blog at  http://marycolwell.blogspot.com/      or click.here.

Planning reforms in England

As the subject is so important for the future of the natural environment I'm sharing my letter to my MP.

For more background click here:

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David Heath MP

House of Commons

London    SW1A 0AA

October 5th 2011

Dear Mr Heath,

I hope you will be able to add my voice to the many others expressing concern about the headlong rush to make damaging changes to our planning laws. Over sixty odd years I’ve seen the pressures on the natural environment grow. Recent progress in creating some protection now appears to be stripped away simply to make life easier for developers. 

I’m using advice from the Wildlife Trusts to seek your help in influencing the Government’s reforms to planning in England. I’m also drawing on my involvement in the conservation of a four acre Local Wildlife Site here in Curry Rivel.

The planning system is vital for securing the long term public interest.  However, I am concerned that the Government’s draft National Planning Policy Framework does not include enough protection for the natural environment and gives too much weight to economic growth. 

I strongly believe the Government needs to make the following changes to its planning policy:

·         Re-instate the importance of the natural environment in national planning policy;

·         Require councils to plan for nature’s recovery in their local area as well as new homes and other development;

·         Give specific planning protection to 40,000 Local Wildlife Sites across England; otherwise these important places for wildlife will be under threat.

I hope you will help change Government policy on this vital issue for the future of our country.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

David German 

http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/nppf

Confused about Government Policy ?

I thought I would try to be non party political in my Blog but today it seems difficult to steer a neutral path through Govt statements.

In my last post I started to look at the new draft planning proposals and I more than ever hope they are draft and a long way from being final! Issued by the Department for Communities and Local Government. ( a Dept I am sure I've never heard off before and their web site doesn't look like a normal Govt site at all. Is there something fishy about this?)
Here is a link to the planning doc, click here 

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Today by chance I came across a news statement by another department of the Govt. This time the Department for the Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs. Visit by clicking here..

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The former (DCLG) says:
Clause  13. Under the sub heading:-  "The presumption in favour of sustainable development".
"The  Government is committed to ensuring that the planning system does everything it can to support sustainable economic growth. A positive planning system is essential because , without growth, a sustainable future can not be achieved."


Clause 14. "At the heart of the planning system is a presumption in favour of sustainable development, which should be seen as a golden thread running through plan making and decision taking."

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The latter statement  ( DEFRA) issued  on 19th Aug 2011says:  "New strategy to save and protect England's Wildlife"
.
Launching Biodiversity 2020, Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said:

"Our wildlife is not only something that we should value because its nice to look at. Nature underpins our very existence, giving us clean air to breath, clean water to drink and healthy food to eat.
This strategy sets out how we will stop the loss of species and habitats, so that this generation can be the first to leave our natural environment in a better state than they found it."

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I much prefer to follow the lead given by DEFRA than that by DCLG!

PS.  I'll try to add some wildlife photos in my next Blog!

Photography for wild flowers and plants ( and bugs)

Yesterday's photographic workshop was a great success. The 18 participants where all SWT members I believe, (although that wasn't a condition for attending), and all agreed that it was well organised and a good format for learning something new about taking better photograph's, especially of flowers . I'm hoping to collect a few of the best pictures so we can share them around.
Meanwhile I am showing here some of my efforts. What I learnt above everything else was that I need to learn a great deal more about my Cannon's capabilities so that I can make much more use of them. Thinking hard about the subject and how to position the camera , the depth of focus, the need for a better tripod than my present rather elementary one, and much else. So if you bear that in mind when you view my examples I would be grateful.( I'll add some identification details later and dont forget you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them once or twice)

 

I

Curry Rivel Community Website | Further discussion on the natural environment. April 2011

Click on the link below to visit the web site to read my letter.

Go to this web link:

http://www.curryrivel.org.uk/community-groups/wildlife/item/203-further-discussion-on-the-natural-environment-april-2011


 Before reading on via the link here are three photos taken in our garden last week. After first identifying a  red Cardinal Beetle ( Pyrochroa coccinia) I now think it was a Lily Beetle (Lilioceris lilii) and the seed case for a Winter Aconite.

                                                               Lilly Beetle ( Lilioceris lilii)

                                                   Winter Aconite  ( Eranthis hyemalis )

                                                   Winter Aconite  ( Eranthis hyemalis )