A note from the Chairman

Another newsletter to inform and, hopefully, to interest you. It contains the usual mixture of articles and accounts of Society activities.

Sadly, Mrs Morag Noakes, the widow of Philip Noakes (AVDCS Chairman 1985 – 1995), died early this year. A collection for the Society was taken at the funeral. The proceeds of this, together with those from the collection taken at Philip Noakes’s funeral, will go towards the building of a pond-dipping platform at the Borrow Pit. By the time you read this the platform should be complete.

The Blackdown Hills fall only partially within the Society’s area of interest, but the Yarty catchment lies largely within them. However, they are an area of great wildlife interest, largely because of their history, as David Allen explains in the first of two articles about their natural history. We participate in working parties in the Blackdowns each winter, and some of our walks take place there.

The Society not only does work on its own account; we also donate money to conservation causes within our area. The structure of modern grant-giving is such that the receiving organisation often has to show that it has raised ‘matching funding’ in order to qualify to receive grant money, and a small amount of ‘matching funding’ can unlock a big grant. Such is the case with grants that are distributed by waste disposal companies as part of their landfill tax obligations. We gave £400 to the East Devon AONB team towards their grant application for a project ‘Looking Out for Bats’. This allowed them to receive a grant of £4,000 from the SITA Trust —our money was clearly well spent. A note from the Project Manager, Peter Youngman, explains what their project is all about. There has already been some success this summer; they have located one nursery roost of Greater Horseshoe Bats.

We organised a good programme of walks during the spring and summer, and there are reports of some of these here. Christina Bows has written an account of the visits to her wood where she has over several years had a programme of conifer removal and habitat restoration. The richness of flora and fauna that has arisen is truly remarkable and gives great hope for the future of this site. Ian Waite’s bird-watching trips continue winter and summer and Marjorie Waters has written enthusiastically about the visit to Portland in the spring.

On more general matters, we seem to be entering a time of change. The rapid rise in fuel prices, long predicted but none the less unwelcome, will hopefully make us all think about ensuring that our homes are well insulated, and that our cars are both fuel-efficient and driven economically. Less predictable but, with hindsight, inevitable, has been the increase in the cost of basic foods. A rising world population and increased prosperity in countries like China means that supply and demand are creeping ever closer to one another, and that prices inevitably rise. Good news for farmers, perhaps – but let’s not forget that their costs, particularly of fuel and fertiliser, are also going up fast. And, of course, the pressure is on to cultivate larger areas, leading to the demise of set-aside and the ploughing up of grasslands. The consequent pressures on wildlife mean that we need to work hard to ensure that our nature reserves are well looked after so that they provide a reserve of plants and animal species to recolonise any sites that may become available in the future. We have a full programme of work parties arranged for the coming winter season – come out and help; it’s healthy exercise in the open air (and it doesn’t always rain!).