BEAR ESSENTIALS The Newsletter of : -
IWA Warwickshire Branch Issue No. 44 – December 2015.
Another Grand Union. On a fine Sunday morning in late October, another ‘union’ of volunteers, including some St.Mary’s residents, Warwick University students, the Love Leamington group, and even the local branch of Cancer Research UK, joined with our branch members to clean a further two-mile stretch of the GU in the Leamington area. Some of the 70 or so volunteers, armed with litter-pickers and black bags, scoured the towpath and hedgerows for discarded bottles and cans etc; while a group of intrepid grapplers set to work trawling the canal for the mysteries of the deep! Soon, the inevitable bicycles and shopping trolleys were lined up on the towpath – accompanied this time by road signs, a video recorder, a motorbike a machete and some large sections of wire security fencing. Meanwhile our chairman was busy extolling the virtues of this and our other branch activities live to local radio listeners on BBC Coventry & Warwickshire. Finally, of course, thanks must again go to CRT, and to Steve Lambert and his crew in particular, for their invaluable support – without which we would have certainly left the towpath in a far worse state than we found it! On both this page, and also page 3, you will see that ‘we’ have had a busy summer and autumn; and this has again given our Branch a pretty high profile within both the Association and our local communities. All of this has been achieved by the hard work of a very small Branch Committee – and the support of a relatively small number of active Branch members. In past editions of ‘BE’, in his Chairman’s column, Richard has called for ‘new blood’. However, this time you will read on page 2 that the need for such a ‘transfusion’ is now even more imperative. th January 2016 will mark the 55 anniversary of JFKs inauguration. If any of us remember just one thing from that occasion it is his immortal words: “And so fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”. Now is the time for us to keep that sentiment but alter the words from Americans to members, and country to Association. We’ve now been producing ‘BE’ in its ‘new’ format for 6 editions (2 years), and I’d appreciate your feedback on how you think we could improve things - like its layout and/or content – after-all it’s your newsletter.
Ian Fletcher.
Editor.
Photos by Greta Russell
- And Yet More Pulling Together.
In August, 13 Branch members and 5 local residents returned to the banks of the Avon at Myton Fields, in Warwick - to continue the Balsam ‘bashing’ (more technically pull-it-up, bag it and remove it) work that they’d started in July. The morning’s ‘haul’ comprised some 70 bags – seen above awaiting removal by the District Council. This operation, not only prevented many thousands of seeds floating down stream to ‘pollute’ the banks of the lower reaches, but also contributed to IWA winning CRT’s Living Waterways Award 2015 - in their Natural Environment Category.