Monday, November 24, 2014

BRENT VALLEY SANCTUARY

We were recently sent this

Hello,

I'm renovating my house at the moment and when clearing out, I came across this flyer.

I saw that the society is still running so just thought I'd send a pic as perhaps it's of interest to someone there.

Cheers,
Ross





I admit that I hard not heard of the sanctuary so with a bit of help from the internet

"The members of a branch of the Selborne Society bit upon an admirable idea. London grows outwards : every year the grip of the town fastens more and more on vanishing country, and where it fastens it generally kills.

With the coming of the town and its roads and railways the country has to be protected, if it is to survive at all, against the enemies the town brings with it ; against wanton spoiling and defiling, against the destruction of its birds and beasts, against the trippers and streets hawkers who grub up its ferns and flowers.

The Brent Valley branch of the Selborne Society looked at the practical side of that difficulty as it affected their own neighbourhood. Why should not they, while there was yet time, secure and protect a sanctuary of wild life, particularly bird life ?

A wood, one of the few remaining in the district, seemed to offer the opportunity of such a sanctuary, and after some negotiation it was arranged with the farmer on whose property it stands that the fences surrounding the wood should be kept up and that a keeper should be appointed. "
I admit to not finding any recent references so any information would be appreciated.

To Read more about the sanctuary take a look at this old reference http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/15th-january-1910/9/the-brent-valley-bird-sanctuary

Friday, November 7, 2014

Adrian Lloyd Jones: Return of the Beaver

This was a fascinating talk giving us a real insight into these wonderful creatures and an understanding of how nearly they were taken to extinction by man's hunting

With the aid of some props we really had an insight into how these creatures live and how close to the riverbank they are confined in their lifestyle

I had not realised how far the considerations of doing a managed release in Wales had moved forward so it was really interesting to hear about the work of the Welsh Beaver Project http://www.welshbeaverproject.org/home/


Adrian gave us the link for all the detailed documents that show the net benefits to wildlife, environment, and especially flood prevention http://www.welshbeaverproject.org/downloads/ and went through us the net benefits and the very few considerations that need to be taken into account and showed how easily these are dealt with

He also talked to us about the less reputable side of introductions (Beaver Bombing) which was something many of us were unaware of and a bit of research today turns up this upsetting article on National Geographic http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/08/140804-beavers-science-environment-britain-extinct-animals/ From reading that I can see how much education is needed of people to understand that the Beaver Dams will reduce not cause flooding. It's also clear from the comments that you need to be careful dealing with reporters from any publication as there is a need to clarify the article so read down for all the facts (and some opinions)

At the end of the talk we did a straw poll on the opinion of the audience as to whether we are in support of the project and I am pleased to say we agreed 100% with the proposal and we would be really happy to see it go ahead

There is also a twitter feed @beaverafanc for updates on progress


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