As no major expenditure is planned – no membership contribution is asked for in 2023. However donations are always welcome.
Report from Adam Bolton, Conservation Manager (West) – Surrey Wildlife Trust
The spring and summer months brought unprecedented temperatures to the UK and unfortunately this contributed to one of the worst wildfire seasons in recent memory in Surrey. Two large fires saw 300ha of Ash Ranges burnt as well as 644ha of Pirbright Ranges along with large fires at other sites in Surrey that aren’t managed by Surrey Wildlife Trust (e.g. Hankley Common). Smaller, but still significant fires were seen elsewhere including a 4ha fire on Whitmoor Common. The fire service were very quick at responding and limited the damage on a very hot day. Away from the doom and gloom of the wildfires, grazing with our Belted Galloway cattle was successful this summer on Whitmoor Common. There had to be some changes to the order in which we wanted to graze as a result of the fire, but all of our target areas were grazed. At the time of writing the cattle are on Jordan Hill and will soon be coming off for the end of the season.We want to send a massive thank you in advance to all volunteers who help with this work! Surrey Wildlife Trust volunteers will also be working on the site this winter, with scrub clearance having just started on Jordan Hill.’
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The annual Christmas Tree Harvest was held in December. The original event was organised by Mark Havler in the days when he was the “Ranger”, and this popular undertaking has been held for longer than I can remember. More people, for example Surrey Wildlife Trust and Surrey CC, have become involved and permission is needed from both of them.
This year we began our run early to obtain the necessary permission from SCC by sending last year’s email and saying “As you can see from the email below – you approved last year’s harvest and can we do the same again this year?”.
St.Joseph’s organised the troops involved for the 10am until 12.30 pm opportunity, and they were there at 9.30am!
We found it necessary to extend the Christmas Tree carpark as another year’s growth of brambles and bracken had reduced the space. Just as well that we cut the undergrowth as by 10.00 am the car park was packed.
I won’t lose touch with you. We will continue to keep you informed of any major happenings in the Guildford area.
With best wishes for the New Year.Paul Rijbroek