All posts by David Pottinger

Ranger’s Notebook – Restoration of Habitats

Conservation, Plants and Animals

Joanna Lawrence, who is the Ranger for Fleet Pond, writes:

Hart Countryside Service has recently been carrying out heathland restoration at Fleet Pond as well as restoring a valuable area of marsh and reedbed. Local Contractors JDB were at the Pond for a week in September carrying out the important work.

Large areas of heathland, marsh and reedbed have been lost at Fleet Pond due to the encroachment of trees and scrub. In the marsh, the restoration process involved getting rid of the dense scrub and then scraping the top layer of soil off to expose the dormant seed bank underneath.

Previous scrapes in the marshes have been very successful with some plant species that have not been seen at Fleet Pond for 30-40 years reappearing. By next spring/summer, this newest area will have more of these important species growing on it, some of which are rare in Britain or are internationally threatened.

Picture: Lesser Water Plantain, one of the rare plants in the pond marshes.

The scraped area on the dry heath will also have new shoots of heather and other heathland plants pushing through the soil by next summer, further extending this valuable and rare habitat.

Fungi Alert! What Is This?

Photography, Plants and Animals

Michelle Salter writes:

There is some weird and wonderful fungus to be found nestling in the undergrowth and growing on trees at this time of year. Walking around the pond this afternoon, I noticed lots of small, purple coloured fungi growing amongst the leaf litter, particularly along the path by Coldsteam Wood.

Can anyone identify it?

Michelle is the Secretary of The Fleet Pond Society.

Please use comments box below to provide feedback – we’d like to hear from you!

Volunteer Spotlight – Binz Chapman

People, Volunteering

The first volunteer spotlight is on Binz Chapman. The photo was taken at the volunteering event last Sunday.

In his own words:

“I am one of the regular volunteers with Fleet Pond Society (FPS) and have been working with them for about 3 years. Born and raised in the Weald of Kent, I spent a lot of my childhood out in the local countryside, climbing trees, playing in streams and generally coming home wet and muddy.

I first got involved in conservation in my twenties, when I joined one of BTCV’s (previously The British Trust for Conservation Volunteers) mid-week volunteer teams during a period of unemployment. That’s when I caught the bug for conservation work, it gave me the satisfaction of doing something positive in my life and put me back in touch with the simple childhood pleasure of being in nature.

I now volunteer with both the FPS and also a local Hampshire Wildlife Trust group near my home in North Warnborough. Both have given me a greater knowledge and appreciation of the countryside and wildlife around me.

As well as the practical benefits that volunteering brings to the local environment, my employer provides a ‘matched giving’ fund which means that for every hour I spend volunteering they make a financial donation to the charity involved. In my current career (I’m an environmental consultant for a multinational oil company) I spend nearly all my time in front of a computer screen in an office complex with another 4000 of the company’s employees. It’s great to escape from that corporate culture, to be with nature again and to share time with like minded people.

A couple of years ago I decided that as well as working on local reserves I wanted to take on my own conservation project and that led to the purchase of a small woodland in Kent. This was neglected coppice which is now being managed to increase biodiversity, but also provides firewood, a weekend escape and another excuse to be a child again. For more info on that wood, please visit the Ewar Woowar blog”

Update:

This article has been selected to appear in the News section of the BTCV (formerly The British Trust for Conservation Volunteers) website – see here.

Volunteer Event This Sunday!

Volunteering

Fleet Pond Society organises and runs a series of volunteer conservation activities at the Pond (programme for 2008/09 is here).

The next conservation task is this coming Sunday, October 12.

If you have never been before and fancy trying it, please just turn up (details here) or else give Colin Gray a call on 01252 616183, who will be delighted to provide additional information.

Speaking from personal experience, new volunteers are made very welcome and there is a very nice friendly atmosphere overall. Tools and advice are available – you even get tea/coffee and cakes in the mid-morning break!

Interestingly the volunteers have a very wide range of ages, backgrounds and interests. To give a flavour of this, we will occasionally provide ‘spotlights’ on volunteers to explain their motivations for getting involved and what they get out of it.

Hopefully this will be an additional motivation to readers of the blog to come along and give it a go – it’s a very rewarding way of spending a Sunday morning!