wildlife

Secret Spaces

~ sueyoungwildlife ~ Leave a comment

Have you been for a bluebell walk over the past few weeks? Last weekend I went to some woodland near Patching, in Sussex, on the recommendation of a friend, and was rewarded by a view of bluebells cascading down the rolling hillside like a waterfall. Sadly, my photographic skills didn’t do it justice, but we have no shortage of bluebell woods in Kent, and here is just one of the many images we have of these.

Bluebells at Bredhurst Woods © Neil Coombs

Many of Kent’s bluebell woods are Local Wildlife Sites, and as much of the work of the Conservation team contributes to protecting and improving these sites, I thought it would be timely to write about it.

Only a small proportion of land in Kent is protected by law for the nature that it supports. I wonder how many people know that there are another 450 sites across Kent that hold most of the rarest and most threatened species and habitats outside of the legally protected sites. These are the Local Wildlife Sites, there is probably at least one near you. They might be ancient woodlands, flower filled meadows, old orchards, grazing marsh, chalky grassland or even churchyards. Most are privately owned, although some may be council owned green spaces, and they are found right across Kent, even in the heart of our biggest towns.

Grassland Local Wildlife Site © Neil Coombs
Grassland Local Wildlife Site © Neil Coombs

Many were identified in 1986, when it was recognised that the Sites of Special Scientific Interest and European protected sites held only some of the county’s important habitats. If we wanted to look after the rest of it we needed to know where it was, and let others know, so that it could be protected and managed wherever possible. Since then, Kent Wildlife Trust has been coordinating the Local Wildlife Site system. The system has evolved over time, following government guidance, and there is now a rigorous process for identifying and designating the sites. This is important, because although there are no laws protecting the sites, national planning policy sets out guidance for the conservation and enhancement of biodiversity, including Local Wildlife Sites. In order for us to be able to argue for their protection in the planning process, we need to be able to demonstrate exactly why they are important for wildlife and that there is a fair process for their identification and designation.

Alison is in charge of this work, which starts with a request to the landowner for permission to carry out a survey to assess the wildlife value of the site. Sites have to have particularly rare or threatened habitats, or significant numbers of rare and declining species, in order to qualify as Local Wildlife Sites. Existing sites are checked, ideally every 10 years (depending on funding availability) to make sure they still meet the criteria. Over the past few weeks we have completed the review of these criteria, which are now undergoing consultation. We have a small team of experts who survey sites for us, then Alison, assisted by her volunteer trainee, Hannah, checks the results and prepares a map of the site and writes the descriptive citation.

There is an extensive consultation process for new and updated sites and, all being well, the site is eventually approved by the board of the Kent Nature Partnership. It doesn’t stop there though, Alison has to make sure that all the planning departments of local councils have information about the Local Wildlife Sites in their areas, which is provided in GIS (Geographic Information System) format. Alison is our GIS whizz, and tackles all the complicated, techie bits. For people like me, who have yet to get to grips with it, this is the best description of what GIS is that I’ve come across: What is GIS?

Bredhurst Woods Local Wildlife Site
Bluebell woods are an iconic part of the Kent landscape. Bluebells are strongly associated with ancient woodland (technically referred to as ancient semi-natural woodland, as nothing in our crowded country is really free from man’s influence), so much so that they are used as one of the suite of species whose presence indicates that a woodland has been in place for over 400 years. Many large areas of ancient woodland in Kent are designated as Local Wildlife Sites, and we work hard to ensure that bluebell walks in May will be available for future generations.

We do a lot of work to try to ensure that these wonderful sites keep their wildlife, and to encourage their enhancement and many Local Wildlife Site owners work very hard to manage the sites so that they support the best wildlife possible. Richard Neame made a generous endowment to provide an award to recognise the efforts of those people managing the sites and the contribution they make to saving and improving Kent’s threatened wildlife. On Friday, our Chairman, Mike Bax, presented the Richard Neame Gold Award to the Bredhurst Woods Action Group, who have been looking after Bredhurst woods for 10 years, and achieved some amazing results. Neil, our senior land management adviser, has been working with the Group for several years, providing advice and support to help the group enhance woodland and chalk grassland habitats and it was nice to hear him mentioned several times during the evening. It has clearly been a very effective collaboration.

 

Mike Bax presenting award to BWAG
Mike Bax, Chairman of Kent Wildlife Trust, presents the Richard Neame Gold Award to the Bredhurst Woods Action Group for their outstanding management of a Local Wildlife Site.

 

Quite a lot of meetings

~ sueyoungwildlife ~ 1 Comment
vases in the glass room at maidstone museum
Interesting meeting rooms #1

It’s all about meeting people… In the interests of entertaining you, I will focus on the interesting bits of my work, but will need to shamelessly plunder other people’s activity to write about. Because, it has to be said, that a large part of my time is spent in meetings. That’s not really surprising, as the role of the Conservation Team is to influence what people do, and so I spend a lot of time meeting people and discussing how we can work together to improve Kent’s environment, and then more time in meetings with my colleagues (who are doing all the hard work) discussing how to deliver the work, and yet more time in meetings discussing how all this work might be funded.

One of the things I like about my job is the many and varied places in which meetings are held. I get to see buildings and behind-the-scenes in places that I would never otherwise have access to. Last week I attended a Kent Nature Partnership meeting, in the Glass Room at Maidstone Museum. The room has a display of fascinating objects, although it appeared that the tarantula might have proved too distracting to a recent meeting participant, as it had been discretely tucked away behind a plastic plant.

Museum display
Display in the Glass Meeting Room at Maidstone Museum. Spot where someone has tried to hide the tarantula.

…and finding funding In recent months, a lot of my time has been devoted to trying to secure funding. It takes a lot of money to look after Kent’s wildlife – not just the resources we need to improve wildlife habitat and create more of it, but to pay the skilled staff who run the projects, provide advice to landowners, or make the case for protecting sites and species to those in a position to affect this. The generous support of our members goes a long way to providing this, but the task we face, to stop biodiversity declining and start to recover, is a huge and expensive one.

Several members of the team are working on funding bids to enable us to create networks of wildlife habitat along rivers, to restore wildflower meadows, to involve people in looking after and enjoying our amazing marine wildlife, and to improve the natural and cultural heritage on the Romney Marshes. An advantage of working in Kent is that we are able to work easily with partners on the other side of the Channel, and to seek funding from the European Regional Development Fund. Landscapes and habitats in northern France are similar to those in Kent, and it is very useful to share information on their conservation.

Last week, a group of Kent Wildlife Trust staff set off in the Trust landrover for a meeting in France to discuss a new project. Not being a morning person, I found the 4.45 start a bit of a challenge, but by 9.00 local time we were in Calais, to meet staff from some of the Conservatoires D’Espaces Naturels in northern France. These are very similar to Wildlife Trusts, managing nature reserves and seeking to protect and enhance biodiversity in France. We are lucky to have Camilla in the conservation team, as well as a multi-talented project officer, she is also a fluent French speaker, having grown up in France. She had the incredibly difficult task of translating everything that was discussed either into French or English, which requires a huge amount of concentration. She did a great job, because by the end of the day we had agreed the outline of the project and we hope to be submitting something to the funder soon.