This month we are able to report some good news – sadly a commodity in poor supply currently. A substantial article by George Peterken and Elsa Wood about the wild flora survey of our two parishes has just been published by the prestigious journal British Wildlife.
The article traces the changes in the various wild plants of the area over the last century, by comparing the results of the survey conducted over the last few years, as reported in the Village News, with the estimated tally about 100 years ago. The conclusion reached is that plants are becoming extinct locally at the rate of about 0.5 species per year, and new acquisitions are occurring at about the same rate, although some of these, such as Indian Balsam and Japanese Knotweed, are invasive.
British Wildlife is widely considered to be the UK’s leading natural history magazine, followed by enthusiasts as well as professional naturalists and wildlife conservationists. Ideally, we would have liked to place the article in full on our website, but the magazine requests otherwise for the understandable reason that they need people to buy copies. We are buying copies for the committee members and a few extras, so, once we have managed to distribute them, it will be possible to read it by contacting any one of the committee directly or getting in touch via the website.
George and Elsa have generously decided to donate their £400 fee for the article to the Parish Grasslands Project. And George has written a summary of the article, with photographs, which you can read on the PGP website.
We are very frustrated that our Climate Change initiative has had to be put largely on hold, just when it was up and running and the need for it has become obvious. Devastating though the coronavirus epidemic certainly is, the larger threat is still the degradation of our environment. Meantime, oblivious to lockdown and the need for social distancing, the natural world continues much as normal, and it is good to see a significant increase in the numbers of local people using our wonderful footpath network for their daily exercise.