BROOK
MEADOW CONSERVATION GROUP
ANNUAL
GENERAL MEETING 3rd October, 2007
CHAIRMAN'S
REPORT
In my first year as
chair, there have been quite a lot of changes in the
way we do things.
Brian's concluding
remarks at last year's AGM were taken to heart at the
first meeting of the new committee. We decided to
focus more on conservation and wildlife surveys rather
than on public events. Increased public access and
protection of wildlife habitats was a clear issue
which the new committee needed to address.
The
committee
Last year, the
committee had several new members and it took a while
for them to find their feet as existing members took
on new roles.
Wally Osborne as well
as being the group's honorary secretary has recently
taken over as membership secretary. Wally also
organises the butterfly transects, the visitor survey
and oversees the annual visit by Northern Parade
school. He is also an expert at handling the group's
brushcutter.
Pam Phillips has taken
over seamlessly in her role as Treasurer and has
become our tree scout, dog bag dispenser filler and
gatekeeper.
Jennifer Rye, as well
as doing sterling work as education officer, has been
responsible for reorganising our health and safety
procedures for the work sessions. She is also one of
the work session leaders together with Wally and
myself.
Pat Walsgrove keeps
tabs on all the training courses provided by BTCV in
addition to providing excellent tea and coffee during
our work sessions. She has also made contact with
Jonathan Benge (Water Vole expert) and Nik Knight (Bat
expert) through her connection with Hampshire Wildlife
Trust Mammal Group. They are both helping us to carry
out wildlife surveys.
David Search, although
not present much of the time as he is having to earn a
living in Wales, has been involved in carrying out
quadrat surveys of the meadow plants and helped with
deciding on the cutting regime for the annual
cut.
Dave Lee, in addition
to being an active member at work sessions, has joined
Wally and myself at our quarterly meetings with the
Open Spaces Development team at Havant Borough Council
and was instrumental in getting the drain at the end
of Seagull Lane unblocked.
Lyle Mark has resigned
from the committee to return to his native Australia
with his wife Linda and although we wish them well we
also hope they will return before not too long. Lyle
was a tremendous support during work sessions always
eager to do more than his bit.
I would like to thank
the present committee for all their support in making
the job of chair easier for me to take on. I would
also like to thank Brian Fellows, although retired
from the committee, for continuing to write his
informative nature notes for his fortnightly email
notes and newsletter, managing the website and
updating the signcases with news and photographs each
month.
Constitution
and our wider remit
According to our
constitution, our objects are to:
i) promote the
conservation and protection of the wildlife and
natural environment within the Emsworth Area,
especially the area known as Brook Meadow
ii) encourage public
access to Brook Meadow and raise public awareness of
the need for biodiversity conservation within the
Emsworth area as a whole.
The group has tried to
fulfil these objects by:
· Brian's
splendid nature notes which cover a much wider area
than Brook Meadow putting it into the context of the
local environment.
· I have been
responsible for re-establishing the Havant Borough
tree warden scheme in Emsworth which is now expanding
across the borough. In fact Brian was the Emsworth
tree warden when it was first started 10 years
ago.
· The group has a
rep on the Havant Conservation Forum which as I will
tell you later has given a lot of support to nature
conservation groups in Havant Borough and to the Brook
Meadow group in particular.
· The group has
helped other conservation groups both in Emsworth and
in the rest of the borough with advice, practical
work such as strimming and lent out tools and
equipment.
· The group is
also represented on the Emsworth Community Board,
Emsworth Design Statement and more recently Emsworth
Town Partnership.
Membership
At 355, membership for
the year 2006/2007 was considerably lower than in the
previous two years. There are various reasons for
this, possibly because we did not organise any autumn
wildlife workshops for children or a May Day in Brook
Meadow event. It could also be that membership is
reaching saturation point at around this level.
So far, membership for
the current year September 2007 to August 2008 is
about 222 including 50 members paying by Standing
Order. If you have not yet renewed your membership or
wish to join, please see Wally Osborne during the
break. BMCG membership, which is still only £3
per person a year, is very good value for
money.
Havant
Borough Council
In managing Brook
Meadow, we work closely with Havant Borough Council.
Topics such as path cutting, annul cut, paths
maintenance, fencing, etc. are discussed at quarterly
meetings with the Open Spaces Development team (OSD),
Rob Hill, Freda Devonshire and Nick Hammond. Tree
management is discussed during site meetings with
Andrew Skeet, the arborist at HBC.
Practical management
support is provided by HBC in the form of
· Strimming the
edges of the main paths regularly during the summer
after liasing with the group.
· Paying for the
annual cut carried out by contractor Martin
Cull
· Employing a
tree surgeon to carry out major tree works
· Erecting and
repairing fences as required
· Paying for path
materials
As part of the
Liveability scheme which paid for improvements to the
underpass and surrounding area, HBC has installed a
new surface on the south bridge, relaid the footpath
and planted native Bluebells and Primroses along the
footpath to the south bridge from the car park. In
addition, a number of smart black signposts directing
visitors to Brook Meadow, among other places, have
been put up in the town centre.
Havant
Conservation Forum
Havant Conservation
Forum, organised by BTCV (British Trust for
Conservation Volunteers) on behalf of HBC, brings
together voluntary conservation groups from around the
Borough, including 3 from Emsworth. At quarterly
meetings, a variety of conservation related issues
such as insurance, fund raising, training, publicity,
litter and vandalism are discussed and information
exchanged. The Forum has also had occasional guest
speakers including Jon Stokes from the Tree Council
and organised site visits to individual conservation
areas in the summer.
As a result of the
persistence by several individuals, HBC has recently
agreed to pay the public liability insurance for all
conservation groups belonging to the Forum not as a
one off payment but every year for the foreseeable
future. This amounts to about £150 a year for
each group. HBC are obviously seeing the value of all
the conservation groups have for the
borough.
The Forum has also
resulted in the formation of Havant Conservation
Action Project (HCAP) mainly through the efforts of
Pete Hodges chair of Park Wood in Cowplain, which
obtained £10,000 from Awards for All a lottery
grant to promote conservation groups in the borough.
So far it has paid for a set of display boards, a new
gazebo (which we used at the Emsworth Show), paid for
our new banner, public events such as the Summer Party
in Hollybank Woods and Woodland Festival at Park Wood
last Sunday. Lots of training courses are being
provided; Risk Assessment and First Aid courses have
already been given. Brushcutter, Safe Tools Use and
Green woodworking courses are planned for later in the
year. Several of our members have already attended or
are booked on these courses.
Local
Nature Reserve - an update on progress
Brian Fellows in his
chairman's report last year, said that he had almost
seen this exciting development through to fruition. A
year later and Brook Meadow still does not have Local
Nature Reserve status. The reason for the delay is
bureaucracy. After being approved by HBC's Executive
Council, the proposal went to Chichester District
Council for approval since part of Brook Meadow is in
West Sussex. In the meantime, English Nature who
supervises LNRs was amalgamated with the Countryside
Agency to form Natural England and then the person
responsible for our area left.
The current position
is that Chichester District Council has agreed
verbally to the designation of the area within their
district, but the paper work has still to be signed.
HBC's senior solicitor has now to write a Declaration
stating that HBC wishes to grant Brook Meadow LNR
status and has promised to make the preparation of the
Declaration a target for the next meeting with the OSD
team on 23 October.
The Declaration is
then sent to Natural England. Once this has been
rubber stamped, brown Local Nature Reserve signs will
be put up probably on the A259 with the symbol of a
duck. I don't think we will get a Water
Vole!!
So we will have to
wait just a little bit longer for Brook Meadow to be
the first LNR in Emsworth.
Management
Volunteer numbers have
been substantially higher this year compared to
previous years, with an average of 12 people taking
part at both the Thursday and Sunday work sessions.
This has meant that we have been able to carry out a
large number of tasks without getting too exhausted.
Management of Brook Meadow is divided into 3 sections:
grassland, trees and river.
Grassland
The problems
experienced with the annual cut in 2006 have now been
resolved by getting Martin Cull to be the contractor
for the annual cut. On 19 July this year, Martin cut
the northern part of the North Meadow and the western
part of the Central Meadow, leaving wide margins round
the edges and islands serving as wildlife havens. The
arisings are collected as they are cut and dumped in a
sacrificial area on the eastern side of the North
Meadow. Martin is due to return later in October to
cut some more areas. The group will cut and rake other
areas such as the Seagull Lane patch, SE corner of the
South Meadow and the Lumley wet area during the course
of the autumn and winter.
Other work the group
has carried out included
· sowing Yellow
Rattle seeds to reduce the dominance of the coarse
grasses since it is semi-parasitic on grass roots;
· digging up the
roots of Hemlock Water-dropwort in early spring to
restrict its invasive nature in the Lumley wet area.
· keeping the
paths clear of overhanging Nettles and Brambles and
cutting back other invasive plants, such as Bindweed,
which have grown enormously due to the wet
summer.
Trees
Although most of Brook
Meadow is grassland and not woodland, there are a
large number of trees which require attention.
· We planted a
Memorial Oak tree in memory of Malcolm Smith near the
Seagull Lane entrance in October 2006 as well as a
native hedgerow of Dog Wood, Dog Rose and Field Maple
along the new fence, and Hawthorn and Holly along the
new fence along Lumley Path.
· The Hampshire
Wildlife Trust Watch group planted 3 Horse Chestnuts
in the South Meadow and the group planted 3 Osiers in
the North Meadow taken from cuttings of the ailing
tree near the south entrance. The parent tree has
subsequently died.
· One of the
native Black Poplars which we transplanted the
previous year did not survive and we have removed it.
· Other tree work
included, removing rank vegetation from around young
trees, mulching them and pruning some of larger trees,
especially when they overhang the footpath.
· Several large
trees fell across the riverbank and one large trunk
split due to the strong winds in the autumn and winter
last year. Andrew Skeet engaged a contractor to fell
two large Crack Willows along the northern riverbank.
The wood was used to build log piles for invertebrates
and dead hedges and willow hurdles to restrict access
to certain more sensitive areas. It is hoped that all
the remaining large Crack Willows along this northern
riverbank path will be pollarded over the coming
winter to prevent this from happening
again.
Many thanks to Pam
Phillips for being our on site lumberjack who, with
bow saw at the ready, cuts off and removes branches
overhanging the footpath.
River
Ems and riverbank management
Water levels in the
northern section of the River Ems were very low last
autumn drying up completely from late August to end of
November. But fortunately, the southern section of the
river did not dry out because of water flowing in from
the spring to the north of the railway line. In
addition, sections of the river were ponded many years
ago creating areas of deep water alternating with
shallower sections. So at least there was always water
in some sections along the riverbed.
The tasks which the
group has been involved in this year
include:
· Removing litter
and obstacles from the river.
· Putting up 2
Water Vole notices asking dog owners not to let their
dogs go in the river between the two bridges and
building Willow hurdles along the riverbank. This
action was necessary because last winter, a dog slide
had been made down into the river near the sluice.
· Liasing with
the EA on the management of the river and its banks.
For example:
1) we alerted the EA
about a patch of invasive Japanese Knotweed on the
western riverbank near the gasholder. JK must not be
strimmed since this increases its spread and the only
solution seems to be spraying for which the EA had to
obtain a license because of using a herbicide near
water. The plant was sprayed last autumn but a small
patch has reappeared and will be sprayed again.
2) The wooden boards
which make up the simple sluice near the central
causeway were frequently being removed, so the EA has
now locked them in place. This means that when the
River Ems is high as it was last winter, water cannot
flow into the balancing pond (South Meadow) as it has
done in previous years.
3) The storm drain at
the bottom of Seagull Lane near the entrance to Brook
Meadow had been blocked for a long time causing
flooding around the entrance and the footpath. This
was eventually cleared in February 2007 thanks to very
persistent nagging by Dave Lee. Shortly after the
drain had been unblocked, a greyish sludge was
reported flowing down the road into the now unblocked
drain and coming out of the surface water pipe and
flowing into the river Ems near the North bridge. The
incident was reported to the EA and samples were taken
which were found to contain aluminium. It appeared
that the aluminium anodising company further up
Seagull Lane had a problem with their process water
getting into the surface water drainage system. This
has now been rectified and no further incidents have
been reported.
4) In September last
year, the Environment Agency cleared the in-stream
vegetation and removed several overhanging branches
but did not cut the riverbank vegetation. As a result,
the riverbank became very overgrown this summer and in
some places it was difficult to see the river at all.
To ensure that this does not happen again and because
of concerns about the Water Vole population, we sought
advice from Charlotte Murray (EA) and Graham Roberts
(HWT). Members of the BMCG committee have had several
site meetings with the EA and HWT to get agreement on
the appropriate riverbank management with the aim of
creating a variety of habitats for Water Voles,
Kingfishers, Bats, etc. This mosaic pattern of cutting
has only just been completed. And I am very pleased
with the results.
Paths
and seats
The edges of the main
paths are strimmed about two or three times a year
during the summer by Les Foster and his mate at our
request and after a site visit to determine what needs
cutting;
Path maintenance this
year was carried out under the Community Payback
Scheme supervised by the Probation Service with path
materials paid for by HBC. Paths, steps and a ramp
were relaid in Palmers Road copse from the Water Vole
sign case to 2nd entrance to car park in April/May
this year and the central steps and main path in South
Meadow were dug out and filled with new path gravel
with completion at the end of
August/September.
A Handrail on the
central steps to central seat was put in by HBC in
August at the request of a resident and member of
BMCG. Esme??
A Memorial seat was
installed by Stansted Sawmills in the North Meadow in
late August. This was paid for from a generous
donation made by Beryl Young and family in memory of
her husband Eric Young who died last year.
Dogs
The 'dog poo' posters
designed by children at St James' Primary and Glenwood
Special Needs schools have been displayed in the
signcases over the last year.
A dog bag dispenser
was installed by HBC in October 2006. The dispenser is
filled up by Pam Phillips and the bags paid for by
HBC.
Litter and dog bins
are emptied every day. Thanks Sid for being so
efficient and friendly.
We are not sure if our
dog poo posters or the dog bag dispenser are having
any effect on reducing dog mess but the bags are
certainly going down at about 50 a week.
Out of control dogs:
There have been several incidents on the meadow of out
of control dogs, including one in which a woman was
knocked over and broke her leg.
Training
David Search and
myself went on a Making Wildflower Meadows course at
Sticky Wicket in Dorset in June. This was a very
interesting and useful course with lots of tips and
good ideas some of which we hope to use in the future.
Vandalism
The group has a zero
tolerance to vandalism and this seems to be paying off
since there has not been much over the last year.
· watervole
notice has been removed and damaged several times,
each time we have repaired and replaced it
immediately;
· signcase cover
at the South entrance was badly scratched with a knife
and was replaced
· BROOK MEADOW
sign on the southern side of the A259 was damaged
beyond repair early in February but has not been
replaced
· Two men were
surprised by one of our dog walking members when using
a metal detector in the dark at the end of January.
Public
use of Brook Meadow
The number of people
visiting BROOK MEADOW recorded in this year's visitor
survey in July was 163 over a 12-hour period. This was
30% lower than last year (240 visitors) with most
people visiting in the late afternoon. However, the
number of dogs recorded increased from 83 in 2006 to
96 this year (an increase of 16%) with a peak in the
morning. This somewhat surprising fact can be
explained by the observation that as many as 4 or 5
dogs came to the meadow with only one dog walker. Next
year, we intend extending this visitor survey by
having conservation and wildlife information on
display to increase awareness about conservation and
encourage more people to join the group.
Public
events
The committee decided
quite early on not to organise a public event in May
this year. Instead we concentrated on having stalls at
other events and organising or giving
walks.
· Stall at the
Friends of the Earth Green Living Fair in November
last year was very successful.
· Guided walk in
Spring given by Brian Fellows.
· 2 herb walks by
Steve Taylor in May (attended by 19 people) and July.
· 2 Ems valley
walks in July part of Hampshire Water Festival given
by Brian and myself.
· A stall at the
Emsworth Show in a new shared gazebo with our new
banner designed by Brian Picknett. We are considering
sharing a stand with the Friends of Hollybank Woods at
next year's Show.
· Stall at
Woodland Festival in Park Woods, Cowplain last
Sunday.
Children
and Brook Meadow
· HWT Watch group
had two conservation mornings in Brook Meadow last
year:
11 November: moved
piles of branches and logs to make dead hedges and
wood piles and also looked for bugs in existing
woodpiles
10 March: raked up
cuttings in central and north meadows, planted 3 Horse
Chestnut saplings and did litter pick.
· Rather than
organising special activities for schools we prefer it
if the school organises this itself and we just come
along and provide extra help and information. So we
were very pleased when we were approached by Caroline
Fisk (Chichester Harbour Conservancy) to help her with
a field studies trip in Brook Meadow for Emsworth
Primary school. The trip took place over 3 mornings in
February when eighty 8-9 year olds visited the meadow
for a series of activities one of which was a bug hunt
in log piles supervised by Jennifer and myself. The
event was very well organised and enjoyable, and we
hope they will come again next year.
· Unfortunately,
the annual Northern Parade school visit planned for
July had to be cancelled because of poor weather
conditions. The children were very disappointed and we
look forward to organising a similar event next year.
· Scouts
centenary event on 1 August: 15 Cub Scouts helped rake
and remove arisings cut from around the Rowans and
taking them to our sacrificial area. Several cubs also
helped to carry out a butterfly survey.
· Glenwood
special needs school, St James Primary school and
scout groups have all paid impromptu visits to Brook
Meadow.
Wildlife
Water
Voles
In 2007, Water Vole
sightings continue to be scarce for the second year
running. This is a cause for concern so the group
enlisted the help of Jonathan Benge who has a PhD on
Water Voles. On 2 June, Jonathan and 6 conservation
volunteers carried out a Water Vole survey on the
river in Brook Meadow. They found quite a few burrows,
latrines and feeding stations in roughly three areas
where Water Voles have been seen this year. Between
the south bridge and the sluice, around the S-bend and
north of the North bridge near the bend. Jonathan
thought the overgrown riverbanks could be a problem as
Water Voles prefer an open habitat. There appears to
be enough evidence for optimism but another survey
should be done in October as more voles should be
produced from this year's early cohort.
Bats
A preliminary bat
survey was carried out at the beginning of September
with the help of Nik Knight of Hampshire Wildlife
Trust. Using bat detector boxes we were able to locate
Soprano Pipistrelles on the eastern side of the
meadow. Common Pipistrelles (slightly lower frequency)
were heard around the South bridge with possibly also
Brown Long-eared and Serotine bats. Pat is keen to
start doing monthly bat surveys between April and
October.
Birds
Brian has recorded 41
species of birds this year out of a total of 66.
Resident breeders such as Blackbird and Robin are all
active and breeding. Two pairs of Moorhen on the River
Ems had small broods. Mistle Thrush has been absent
for the second year running. Summer visitors such as
Chiffchaff (3-4), Blackcap (4-5) and Whitethroat (2-3)
have all been singing on Brook Meadow but Whitethroat
was less obvious than usual. Kingfishers have been
seen regularly flying up and down the river or perched
on one of the overhanging branches. Grey Herons have
also been seen fishing in the river.
Butterflies
19 species out of a
total of 24 have been recorded this year but generally
in fewer numbers. Butterflies got off to a good start
in March and April with the lovely spring weather,
with Holly Blues and Brimstones particularly numerous.
Brian recorded 8 Peacock butterflies and 2 Small
Tortoiseshell in April. But numbers were substantially
reduced in May due to the cold and wet. Sightings
picked up again in June and July when the summer
broods started to emerge. Gatekeepers were everywhere,
with Skippers, Comma, Peacock, Red Admiral and Large
White. A Marbled White was recorded for the first time
since 2003 but fewer Speckled Wood and Common Blue.
Small Tortoiseshell have not been seen very often and
are fast becoming very rare. I personally recorded 9
species and a total of 74 butterflies mostly Meadow
Browns and Small Whites during a butterfly transect
carried out on 19 July. Wally Osborne will analyse the
data collected from the butterfly transects which
several volunteers carry out every week between April
and October each year.
Dragonflies
There have been many
Dragonflies in the meadow this year including, Banded
demoiselle, Broad-bodied Chaser, Common darters and
the rare Common Hawker spotted by Charlotte Murray (EA
Dragonfly expert) on 16 August.
Ground
dwelling insects
David Search has
recently given us the results of his research into
ground dwelling insects in Brook Meadow which he
carried out in the summer of 2005 as part of his
degree in Environmental Biology at the University of
Portsmouth. David's survey identified 20 species of
ground beetles and 15 species of Rove beetles. His
report is on our website.
Flowering
Plants
The total plant list
for Brook Meadow grows year by year. Currently the
list stands at: 333 different species, which is an
increase of 9 compared with 324 this time last year
with 259 being recorded this year. New plants recorded
this year include Bee Orchid, Pink Water-speedwell,
Danish Scurvygrass, Welsh Poppy, Oil-seed Rape and
Lemon Balm.
Some plants do better
than others from year to year depending on the
conditions. The more delicate plants struggled with
the huge growth of vegetation this summer due to the
heavy rainfall.
Wild Angelica was
flowering in Palmers Road copse very early in April,
according to the experts it is not supposed to flower
until July. On the other hand, Cuckooflower and Cow
Parsley flowered rather later this year in Brook
Meadow compared to nearby areas.
Common Spotted Orchid
and Yellow Rattle emerged on Brook Meadow in much the
same area as last year but in larger numbers. Perhaps
some of the Yellow Rattle seeds sown by the group last
winter did germinate after all. Yellow Rattle is quite
tricky to establish and the seeds must be sown as
quickly as possible because they deteriorate rapidly.
I hope to be sowing some more Yellow Rattle, which I
obtained from Sticky Wicket in Dorset, at tomorrow's
work session. In addition, the group planted 2
Southern Marsh Orchid plants kindly donated by Nigel
Johnson. This increases the total number of different
orchids growing in Brook Meadow to three.
Sedges, Rushes and
Horsetails all did well this year, especially Divided
Sedge with most of the different species found on
Brook Meadow being recorded. This is not surprising
since they like wet conditions.
Alder Buckthorns
planted 6 years ago are covered in red and black
berries. The Rowan saplings have bright red berries
much loved by birds. It has generally been a very good
year for fruits of every kind including Blackberries,
Elderberries and Sloes.
Other wildflowers
which also did well include: Lesser Celandine,
Meadowsweet, Hogweed which attracts hundreds of bright
red Soldier Beetles (with some plants growing to 8-9
feet tall), Common Fleabane and Red Bartsia which both
compete well with grasses, Water Mint, Common Comfrey,
Pepper-saxifrage (old meadow indicator), Amphibious
bistort with record numbers in flower. The grasses did
very well too, with some even flowering (Timothy) for
a second time after the annual cut in July.
Other plants did not
fare so well. The Ragged Robin count of 85 flowering
plants was the second lowest since 2002, the highest
number being 332 last year. However, numbers do vary.
Other plants which also did not do so well include
Butterbur (lowest number of flower spikes since 1999),
Strawberry Clover, Marsh Arrowgrass and Hedge
Bedstraw. The flowers of Creeping Buttercup were less
in evidence than in previous years, possibly because
of the dominance of the tall grasses.
Fungi
The period between
November and February was very good for fungi with a
variety of colours and shapes, some with very
descriptive names including Grey Polyphore, Velvet
shank, Turkey tail, Jelly-ear and Hairy
Stereum.
Concluding
remarks
Yet another very busy
year in Brook Meadow but busy in a different way. This
year, the committee has organised fewer public events
and activities for children but has been more involved
with liasing and cooperating with agencies,
organisations and other conservation groups. This has
meant that the group has spent less of its own funds
as well as expended slightly less physical energy but
has spent more time at meetings and site visits. It's
called networking and negotiation.
Thanks
Finally, a big thank
you to all those people who have helped us over the
past year, especially
· All the willing
and cheerful volunteers at work sessions
· Fred and Ruth
Portwin for looking after the power scythe.
· Ted and Penny
Aylett for storing most of our tools and
equipment
· Brian Fellows
for his enthusiasm and knowledge about wildlife
· All our members
without whose support we could not continue
· OSD team at
HBC, especially Rob Hill and Andrew Skeet
· Environment
Agency, especially Charlotte Murray and Barry Kilner
· Graham Roberts
(HWT)
· Pete Hodges
(HCAP coordinator)
· Rachel Moroney
(BTCV).
· All those who I
have forgotten to mention!
I am very pleased to
introduce our guest speaker for this evening: Graham
Roberts, Water for Wildlife Officer at Hampshire and
Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust.
Graham has been a
friend to the Brook Meadow Group for several years,
giving a Water Vole seminar here in Emsworth back in
July 2002 and a Water Vole surveying course which
Brian, Wally and myself attended at Winnal Moors in
Winchester. In addition, he provided several Water
Vole exhibits for our Brook Meadow through the Ages
exhibition in Emsworth Museum in spring 2005. He has
been very supportive to both Brian and myself when
voicing our concerns about the Water Vole population,
including a recent site visit with Charlotte Murray of
the Environment Agency to work out the most
appropriate riverbank management method to improve the
water vole habitat.
I hope he will not
mind me telling you that he is also the very proud
first time father of a baby girl, Ellie, born a few
days ago. Congratulations Graham.
