Mark Webster’s April Message and Programme are here. Please check whether you need to book a place on the mini-bus when making your plans.
McCarthy Stone Green Space
The new residents currently moving in to properties of the McCarthy Stone phase 2 development on Bluebell Road could expect to have the benefit of a landscaped Green Open Space along the whole length of the southwest edge of the McCarthy Stone site. The Green Open Space would have included meadowland, a pond, and groups of planted parkland trees. Paths would have passed through the green space to link the new estate with the Strawberry Field and to the paths down to the river and the Yare Valley Walk. The plans are here.
The creation of this landscaped Green Open Space is important. UK biodiversity is in serious decline and the green space is intended to compensate, in part, for the biodiversity loss resulting from the built part of the development. It is also important to meet the needs of a growing number of residents in close proximity to the Yare Valley. Pressure of use on the existing green space threatens to be unsustainable. Any additional green open space in the Yare Valley would help ease the pressure of public use on other parts of the Valley.
The Yare Valley Society submitted a detailed report with photographs to Norwich Planning Authority on the present situation.
The Authority acted swiftly. It contacted the developers and a timescale has emerged for when the work can be expected to be done. It reports:
“[The contractors] have been trying to complete the footpath works along the river … though this has been held up by flooding and that they are also needing to undo damage caused by the flooding. They plan to move onto the Open Space land … once the riverbank works are done though they may start sooner if those works can’t as yet be completed. They think they have 5 days work left on the riverbank and that the Open Space works will take about 2 to 3 weeks. They are hoping the Open Space works should be complete by the end of March.”
The Society will closely monitor progress, both on the landscaping, and also on other environmental benefits that were promised when the development was approved.
The Chalk Streams of Norwich and a Great Big March
Norwich has two “chalk streams” the rivers Yare and Wensum. Chalk streams and their associated ecology are very rare globally. In spite of some statutory environmental protections being in place, not infrequently there is a need for groups drawn from the general public to support and reinforce these protections.
For both rivers there is the Norfolk Rivers Trust. Its mission is to restore, protect and enhance the water environments of Norfolk for people and wildlife.
The Yare has the Yare Valley Society. It seeks to promote the enhancement of the river valley for wildlife and informal recreation from Bawburgh to Whitlingham Country Park.
The Wensum too has people who are prepared to act to avoid damage to its ecology. The Norfolk Wildlife Trust, supported by Aviv in a public appeal for funds, raised money to enable them to purchase the Sweet Briar Marshes beside the Wensum in Norwich. The Trust is in process of seeing through a plan to improve the marshes’ ecology and also to provide some public access.
More recently the single-issue group “Stop the Wensum Link” has drawn attention to the threat the proposed Norwich Western Link presents to the ecology of the Wensum. The latest stage of their campaign is a “Great Big March”:
It is encouraging for all who care for the environment that so many ordinary people, and some extraordinary people, are now backing groups that are attempting to reverse, or at least to halt, the present decline in the ecology of the UK.
Conservation Volunteering in January
For some it may be the bleak midwinter, but the conservation volunteers will be keeping warm with their conservation work in Norwich and the surrounding area. Details of their programme and how to join are here. The organiser, Mark Webster thanks the volunteers for all their efforts in the past year. Between 01 Jan 2023 and 31 Dec 2023:
· 221 tasks were delivered
· 109 different registered volunteers were involved
· 2046 workdays
· 53 different sites were worked on
· 15 sites (28.3%) are in the most deprived 20% of neighbourhoods
· Average of 8.4 individuals per task
Now looking forward to a successful volunteering year in 2024.
Yellow Rattle Planting at UEA Meadows
Matt Tomlinson of Friends of Strawberry Field and UEA Meadows writes:
“To continue our work to help restore the UEA meadows – UEA estates have kindly cut short an area on the meadow by the lake for us. We can now rake up the arisings and create some bare soil to sow yellow rattle and other strawberry field wildflower seeds. This worked really well last year and it would be great to build on this success.
Dates and times –
Sunday 8th Oct 10-12pm
Saturday 14th Oct 2-5pm
Please bring a rake with you if possible. I have borrowed 6 if you don’t have any.
Coffee and biscuits provided and of course everyone is welcome.
Hope to see you then”
Mowing the Meadows
Matt Tomlinson of Friends of Strawberry Field and UEA Meadows writes:
“UEA meadows had their annual cut and collect this week – important to deplete soil nutrients and control grass vigour. Arisings are being left under the tree belts, which make good habitat piles (for breeding grass snakes especially).
For the first time you will see uncut strips on the meadows, which act as refuges for over wintering insects. These will be moved every year.
Big thanks to Norfolk wildlife trust who have been down to Broad Hay Meadow this week to spread some green hay from their roadside nature reserve at Shotesham. A big square has been cut short, by UEA estates, to allow the seeds to have good contact with the soil and to keep the grasses in check. This will be a big boost to the meadows biodiversity and we look forward to see what comes up in the spring !
Thanks also to UEA estates for all their hard work in preparing the area at short notice.
We will be down at UEA in late September to get some more yellow rattle sown.”
NEAT Conservation Volunteering Programme August
Mark Webster writes:
“Summertime, and the Himalayan Balsam is all behind us now – but we won’t look back, instead we are looking forward to a month of making hay, possibly whilst the sun shines, or maybe with scattered showers, but hopefully no more thunderstorms!
This month we will keep caring for our newly planted trees at Bunkers Hill and Netherwood Green, as well as tackling invasive bracken on Mousehold Heath, but mainly we are all about gorgeous grasslands in August, sometimes cutting and always raking up. This is a vital part of habitat management for wildflowers, keeping nutrient levels low to stop nettles and thistles pushing out the beautiful mix of our rarer species which make up a healthy and diverse meadow. Locations include lovely quiet Barmer (out in the wilds), the fine old town of Bungay, and two of Norwich’s most special green lungs, Rosary and Earlham Cemeteries.
If you know someone who could join us for a summer holiday in Norfolk (well, a day out anyway) at some point this month, please let them know.”
The Programme for August is here.
Yellow Rattle Seed Collection
Sunday the 23rd of July 10-12am
Meet at Marston marshes – at the bottom corner (go down church lane past Eaton Vale scout centre and on reaching the railway crossing take the footpath on the left, running parallel to the train track, and enter the marsh).
Matt writes: “We have permission to collect Yellow Rattle seeds from Marston Marshes. These will be vital for us to continue to enrich the UEA meadows and it was a great success last year. However, many more are needed this year. Please come along if you can. Please don’t go to Strawberry Field for this one.”
“Everyone is welcome, I will bring coffee and biscuits dates”.
Please support Matt’s important work on improving the biodiversity of the Yare Valley.
Why Yellow Rattle?
Yellow Rattle has a role in creating and sustaining wildflower meadows. As the Yellow Rattle roots develop, they spread out, and seek out the roots of plants nearby, particularly coarse grasses, and take water and nutrients from them. The growth of the grasses is supressed, and this gives room for other wildflowers to flourish. In addition, the Yellow Rattle is valuable in itself for its nectar rich flowers that sustain pollinators such as bees and butterflies.
Monitoring the Meadow: Big Butterfly Count
Matt Tomlinson of the Friends of Strawberry Field and UEA Meadows is organising another of his events to promote interest in the developing meadows of the Yare Valley:
The Big Butterfly Count
and use of a bird song id app.
Saturday the 15th of July 10-11am
Meet at the Strawberry Field top gate (or find us on the top of the field if running a bit late).
Matt writes: “Roger Carter from our group has kindly agreed to do the Citizen science project – The Big Butterfly count, on Strawberry Field. This will simply involve recording butterfly species seen in a 15 minute time window, we will likely use the 2 patches of wild marjoram to do this.”
“I thought that after that we could use a great little app to see which bird species are around the field margins by recording 10 or 20 minutes of bird song using the merlin bird id app, the app will identify which species are heard. If you would like to do this please upload the app and test that it’s working. It’s really a great app to have!”
More about the big butterfly count is here.
The Merlin Bird app is here.
Plant surveys on Strawberry Field – Saturday 3rd of June at 10 am -12
Matt Tomlinson of Friends of Strawberry Field and UEA meadows is organising a baseline survey of the plant life on the evolving meadow. Some of you will have heard Matt speak at the recent Eaton Eco Fair and/or at last year’s YVS AGM.
Matt writes: “As last year was the first proper year that Strawberry Field was managed as a wildflower meadow, we are keen to get a baseline for the richness and diversity of plant life on the field. This will give us an idea of the positive impact of this new management (cut, collect and removing arisings off site) and add to the value of the site. It will also give data to the Norfolk biodiversity information service. They are calling for this kind of baseline data and would very much appreciate our data.
The surveys will be by Quadrat (a simple square grid) thrown on the ground and a set number of plants marked if present (rapid grassland assessment). Experienced people will be in the teams to help out. If we have enough people, we can look for plant species not yet recorded on the meadow.
As always everyone is welcome and it’s a great opportunity to get up close with the meadows flora and insect life.”
The more of us there, the more we can achieve, so please join Matt and the Friends on Saturday 3rd of June from 10 am – 12. Meet by the gate at 10 am (if a bit late wander down and look for activity on the meadow).