This month: Curlews: record your first sighting of the year; Fairtrade Fortnight 2022; Flood mitigation schemes; Graze anatomy; Homes for wildlife; Incredible Edible beds at Reeth Surgery; Litter Pick 3rd April 2022; Richmondshire Climate Action Partnership; Star Count 2022; Sustainable Swaledale Group administration; Tree planting across the two dales; Waste recycling for local businesses; White Rose Forest; Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority priorities; Group Meeting
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Curlews: record your first curlew of the year
I heard my first definite curlew call on the 18th February and logged it on the Northern Upland Chain Local Nature Partnership website. You can log either seeing one, hearing one or both seeing and hearing one and a responsive map allows you to see their spread across Northern England over time. You can also plot curlews on the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO)’s BTO’s Bird track.
We are extremely lucky to have breeding curlews in Swaledale and Arkengarthdale. Curlews joined the IUCN Red List of threatened species in 2008 as a result of declining numbers. The RSPB website indicates that there are 68,000 breeding pairs in the UK, comprising between 19% and 27% of the global breeding population, and that according to the latest BTO Breeding Bird Atlas (2011) their breeding range has declined by 17% in mainland Britain.
Fairtrade Fortnight 2022
The annual Fairtrade Fortnight runs this year between 21 February and 6th March.
Visit the Fairtrade website for lots of information on the Fairtrade scheme, events planned for Fairtrade Fortnight and a quiz on chocolate. Did you know that in the UK, we each eat on average 11.5kg of chocolate per year requiring the cacoa beans of 11 trees?
Flood mitigation schemes
North Yorkshire County Council is working with local representatives and residents to improve flood resilience following the 2019 flooding. Various options were proposed at a drop in session held in Reeth 4th February. Attendees learnt that the council anticipates offering grants to install flood-resistant doors and windows for properties identified as being most at risk. The Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust shared the session and were able to explain how natural flood management applied up dale can reduce peak flooding in Dales’ villages. Eleri Pritchard of the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust mentioned that they might be looking for volunteers to keep an eye on monitoring equipment for flood projects along the Arkle.
Graze anatomy: what happens when you put up a fence to keep sheep out?
Article in the Guardian illustrating the differences in areas which have had fencing put up to exclude sheep.
Homes for wildlife
There is interest in continuing with the swifts, swallows and martins project this year and even possibly engaging with other interested parties regarding owl boxes and support for hedgehogs. Get in touch if you’re interested!
Incredible Edible beds at Reeth Surgery
The first shoots of spring can be seen in the raised beds at Reeth Surgery. The herbs have been trimmed, fruit bushes moved to the lower beds at the back and the beds tidied ready for future use. A donated compost bin is now in place for composting waste and we have access to water via a water butt at the surgery and a neighbour’s outside tap.
The beds are watered by a group of volunteers and anyone is welcome to tend them. The produce is available to anyone to use, free of charge. If you would like to find out more about what we do or join the group, please email us.
Litter pick 3rd April 2022
The group is planning a litter pick on Sunday 3rd April as part of the Keep Britain Tidy’s Great British Spring Clean. If you would like to volunteer to help, keep an eye on our Facebook page or email us.
Richmondshire Climate Action Partnership
There are now four working groups: building and planning; land management; community projects; and transport and travel. Initiatives include a Foodshare Zero Waste Initiative at Colburn Café & Community Hub, which takes food with a short life, and support for Energy Ambassadors, who can provide advice on energy usage. North Yorkshire County Council have stated that they expect climate change to remain a focus for the new local government structure.
Star Count 2022
Take part in the CPRE’s Star Count between 26 February and 6th March 2022. The aim of the survey is to map the quality of dark skies across England. You look for the Orion Constellation and count the number of stars you can see – the darker the sky, the higher the number you will see. Information on how to take part and how to log the results can be found on their website. The upper end of Swaledale falls within the Yorkshire Dales National Park Official Dark Sky Reserve so choose a clear night and see how many you can count.
Sustainable Swaledale Group administration
After sterling work over the past two years by Adam Bradley as Chair and Adele Sparrow as Secretary, both stood down at the recent AGM. We thank them for all their hard work. Margaret Feetham will take over from Adele as Secretary and the position of Chair will rotate for the next few months while a permanent Chair is sought.
We are now renewing our memberships for 2022. If you would like to renew your membership, please let us know by email and we can send you a form to complete. The membership fee of £5.00 has remained frozen and allows us to cover some of our costs such as the website hosting and funding of some of our projects. Having a formal membership structure allows us to operate a bank account and get insurance coverage for the tree planting tasks.
Tree planting across the two dales
Over the winter Sustainable Swaledale, assisted by volunteers, has planted over 2,500 trees in a dozen different sites around Swaledale and Arkengarthdale and one in Wensleydale. The planting has been predominately in collaboration with the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust as part of the Together for Trees Initiative but some has been done as part of the Tees-Swale:naturally connected project.
The group has planted hedges, copses, wood pasture, a mini-forest and an outdoor classroom, using fifteen species of native broadleaf trees plus holly and juniper. All of the sites were small and carefully planned to enhance the landscape, create biodiversity, store carbon and do their bit for flood protection. A variety of approaches has been trialled both in terms of protection and planting schemes. While most trees were protected by standard Tubex tree guards, previously used tree guards and two prototype Swaledale wool tree guards have also been used. Where less protection was required, canes and bio-degradable spirals were used. One site was planted without any additional protection relying only on the installation of rabbit proof fencing. A trial of cactus tree guards, suitable for use with browsing cattle, is planned for an area of wood pasture.
While most of the planting involved standard hedges and woodland, one landowner asked to trial a Miyawaki or ‘mini-forest’ which encourages significantly faster tree growth, leading to greater biodiversity and carbon capture. 150 square metres were planted very densely at 3 trees per metre totalling 450 trees. At another site we planted trees with mycorrhizal fungi which is claimed to enhance root growth, allowing trees to share nutrients and information.
Landowners are responsible for checking on the trees although the group has committed to help monitor the trees and eventually will remove the tree guards. The group are currently seeking sites for further planting next season.
Waste recycling for local businesses
While residents are able to recycle their glass and plastic, the service for businesses has been halted. A number of members are exploring options for business recycling.
White Rose Forest
The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority has secured funding through the White Rose Forest to support tree planting within the Swale, Ure, Nidd and Ouse (SUNO) catchment, which will help prevent flooding further downstream.
Staff will identify an initial 25 hectares and work with farmers and landowners to identify a further 300 hectares of potential planting schemes over the next four years.
Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority priorities
A Richmondshire Today article of 3rd February reported that the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (YDNPA) is finding funding to address pressing issues such as climate change, improving biodiversity and securing the future of farms. Money will be put into funding and advising farmers and landowners to support high nature-value farming, supporting farmers to take up national agri-environment schemes and delivering Natural England’s Catchment Sensitive Farming initiative.
Core Group Meeting
Our next meeting will be on Thursday 3rd March at the Two Dales Bakery starting at 7pm. Please get in touch if you’d like to join us.