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Eastern Region FW AG Conference
Suffolk Branch were invited to represent Butterfly Conservation at the Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) Conference, held at Centre Pares in February.
James Mann and I attended the conference, which was opened by Professor David Bellamy and featured in both the local and national media. It was very well attended with over 400 delegates from a very varied range of conservation groups. There were ten speakers during the day who covered a broad range of conservation topics, from the role of game shooting in conservation to reservoir management. The quality of these speakers was excellent throughout, and I am delighted to learn that one of the most interesting (and entertaining), Dr Roger Key, has agreed to speak at our members evening later this year.
Our display stand was extremely well received with crowds of people eager to find out more about the role we play and to purchase books. At one point I had six people all waving money at me for books and wallcharts. Very exciting stuff and, because everybody at the conference was already interested in conservation, we feel sure that we managed to recruit several new members without too much difficulty. Finally, I must tell you about something that happened whilst we were setting up the display material. I picked up one of the BC booklets on the White-letter hairstreak and said to James 'Do yo11 think we'll ever sell these? I reckon we're stuck with them forever'. Well, you've guessed it. .. just a few minutes later the very first person to visit our stand wanted to know all about White-letter hairstreaks - where and when to search for eggs, what the caterpillars look like and so on. James and I smiled at each other, answered her questions and sold her a book!
Eastern Region FWAG
Conference
by Stephen Goss
