Environment

Litter pickers

THEhamlet of Chantry is looking a lot tidier, thanks to the efforts of Seth Gillard, aged five, and his sister, Violet, aged two.

For weeks Seth had been commenting on the amount of litter on the roadside and particularly through Chantry.

So along with his sister and armed with hi-vis clothing and litter picking tools he set out on his quest to do his bit for the environment.

When asked why he wanted to clean up the litter he said: “It’s important for the animals who live in our village.”

Off-road damage at Charterhouse

THEdriver of a vehicle illegally damaging a scheduled monument at Charterhouse has been traced by police and warned that the vehicle will be seized if stopped again. The Land Rover had been driven across sensitive areas of the site damaging the surface and the rare plants that live in the unusual habitat before becoming stuck.

Charterhouse has been mined for lead and other minerals for 2000 years and the spoil heaps provide a unique habitat for rare plants.

Jim Hardcastle, Mendip Hills AONB manager said: “It's reassuring that the police have taken this and other incidents of damage to our national heritage seriously. These sites are protected as they represent our collective history and can't be recreated.

“This particular site is also a stronghold for rare plants and animals. At a time when we're facing an ecological emergency these sites become even more precious to us all. The message should go out to all people that drive off-road illegally that we take it seriously and will work with the police to prosecute offenders.”

Bob Croft, from the South West Heritage Trust, said: “The nationally-important Roman and later lead mining remains at Charterhouse are exceptionally fragile and can be easily damaged by irresponsible off-roading.

“The recent damage means that careful repairs to the earthworks will now be necessary.”

Tackling climate change with new online network

ENVIRONMENTALLYconscious individuals, groups and organisations from across B&NES can now join the Zero Carbon Nature Positive Network to add their voices to climate action.

The network provides a platform for people to learn what others are doing across the region to tackle the climate and ecological emergencies and enables local groups to collaborate, support each other and share skills.

Anyone can browse the network, share information, keep up to date with the latest news and opportunities and find out how they can support action in the community to help tackle climate change together.

Sarah Warren, deputy leader and cabinet member for Climate and Sustainable Travel, said: “The network forms part of the council’s commitment to tackling the climate and ecological emergencies and providing the leadership to enable the scale of ambition to be realised.

“The network will allow those organisations to showcase the commitments they have made, to communicate ideas and events on sustainability and the climate emergency and to collaborate with likeminded groups and individuals to help Bath and North East Somerset become Carbon Zero.”

The blog on the site will feature posts by guest bloggers and case studies. Anyone with a story who would like to feature on the blog can email: sustainability@bathnes.gov.uk with ‘ZCNP Blog Pitch’ as the subject heading.

Monitoring butterflies

Painted lady on hemp agrimony

VOLUNTEERSare needed for butterfly surveys across our area. They undertake weekly transect walks between April and September each year. The data collected is used locally by reserve managers to help develop their management plans and nationally by Butterfly Conservation to monitor changes in UK butterfly populations.

Whilst also enjoying the wonderful tranquillity and biodiversity of the Avalon Marshes Reserves, they record the number and species of all the butterflies on each of the walks.

Having established new transect routes at Westhay Moor and Gordano in 2021, organisers urgently need to recruit new volunteers. Full training will be provided.

Details: Fred Giles at butterflysurvey@outlook.com

Celebrating local wildlife

PREPARATIONS are underway for a Wildlife Window Wanderland in Yatton, Claverham and Congresbury on the weekend of February 11th13th. All households will be encouraged to take part by decorating their windows along the theme of Love Your Local Wildlife to coincide with Valentine’s weekend.

Organisers say from birds and bats to bug-life and wild flowers, everyone can be inspired to celebrate the variety of wildlife that makes this part of North Somerset so special.

Street-facing windows all over the three communities will be part of an outdoor wildlife art gallery that is free for everyone to enjoy from 6pm until 9pm each of those three evenings.

Whether displays use colour and light, or people only have time to put up a green heart to show their love of wildlife, the organisers are looking for a big response.

Organisers, Yatton and Congresbury Wildlife Action Group (YACWAG) is working hard to get people involved and would be glad to hear from individuals, local groups and organisations.

They can provide a materials pack along with inspiration for designs and practical tips. It is also expected that online workshops will take place nearer the time.

Details: https://www.windowwanderland.com/event/yatton-andcongresbury-2022/yacwag2@gmail.com

Join Frome’s community wildlife mapping project

FROME Town Council has partnered with the Somerset Environmental Record Centre to create Frome’s own interactive digital wildlife map and is asking residents and visitors to help gather data.

Anyone can take part and contribute, whether you are an experienced wildlife recorder or a novice; recording has been made fun and easy with a free phone app called Seek using the iNaturalist platform and all you need to do is:

Alternatively, you can make a record with pen and paper and upload it on iNaturalist at home, and if you don’t have access online, the council will be more than happy to take your observations over the phone.

Council resilience officer, Joanna Morris said: “This is such an exciting opportunity, the map will show the data submitted by individuals across the town and will be available for everyone to see. You can record all types of wildlife, whether on your walk to work or school, walking the dog or when relaxing in your garden. It will allow us to learn about species present in Frome and to see how we can best support those species that need it.”

The project coincides with the Great Somerset Wildlife Count, Somerset Wildlife Trust’s new community science initiative. There will be a number of different counts from GSWC throughout the year focusing on different species of concern, starting with the frog and toad spawn count which runs until March 31st.

The common frog

Quarry protest gathers pace

AROUND 150 people opposed to the reopening and expansion of a Mendip quarry have staged a protest on the site ahead of a decision by Somerset County Council to give the go-ahead to the plans or turn them down.

Quarry owners Hanson says it already has permission to extract limestone from Westdown Quarry, near Nunney. A planning application is due to be discussed by county planners in the coming months. Hanson proposes to extend Westdown and make use pf the railhead at Whatley Quarry to minimise lorry movements. The plan would create around 40 full-time jobs and quarrying would last until 2042.

Richard Mawer from Westdown Objectors Group said: “This application will take out around 200 acres of Westdown Farm land, dump the overburden into the disused and regenerating Asham Quarry, to quarry around 160,000,000 tonnes of stone over many decades causing a huge increase in lorry traffic.

“All this right next to the ancient and species rich Asham Wood. This will produce an estimated 40 jobs but, in the process, will cause significant harm to some of the Mendip's most nature rich sites and destroy any chance of Mendip, Somerset and the UK keeping to our net zero carbon targets to stop further climate breakdown.”

Ian Strachan strategic development manager, Hanson UK, said: “We recognise the right to peaceful protest, however, the recent demonstration at Westdown quarry not only involved trespassing, but even more concerningly, the protestors’ presence and their actions –such as scaling a quarry face to hang a banner –could have

resulted in serious injury. “We also want to stress that their campaign is misinformed, as our proposals to update existing permissions for Westdown quarry do not threaten the integrity and biological diversity of Asham Wood SSSI. “In fact, our proposals include significant ecological enhancements through the restoration of the Asham quarry void area as well as the progressive restoration of the quarry. This transformative legacy project will provide extensive biodiversity enhancements and our proposals have been shaped by the need to protect and enhance wildlife habitats as well as delivering safer access for pedestrians and horse-riders. “Reopening Westdown will also free up the rail link at our nearby Whatley quarry to allow vital construction materials to go by rail, helping to limit our carbon footprint and reroute vehicles away from local villages. This reflects our overarching approach that the operations of both quarries, including mineral Reopening Westdown Quarry would threaten volumes and vehicle movements, will not exceed the current wildlife at Asham Wood, say objectors permitted levels for Whatley.”

The protest at Westdown and Asham

Protestors say expansion would go against efforts to tackle the global climate crisis