Turn the Biosphere
green
Have you visited the Biosphere Reserve's new
website? More importantly, have you registered
your support on line and added another green
'supporters' pin to our interactive map?
Over the coming months, we want as many
registrations as possible so that we can
demonstrate just how many people care about this
wonderful place. Please register, and through your
networks, friends and families (kids especially!)
encourage others who love North Devon to do so!
Feel free to forward this message - and help turn
the map green.
Also look out for our new North Devon's
Biosphere Reserve leaflet. If you want copies,
please e-mail
or call Northern Devon Coast and Countryside
Service on 01237 423655. Matt
Edworthy
Fisherman's
chief invited to meet HRH Prince Charles
We here a lot about
the over exploitation of marine fish stocks around
the UK but there is good news from North Devon's
Biosphere Reserve. John Butterwith, the
Chair of the North Devon Fisheries Association
(NDFA) has been invited to Clarence House for a
reception hosted by the Prince of Wales to
celebrate the Marine Stewardship Council's (MSC)
10th anniversary.
North Devon's Biosphere Reserve extends into
the Bristol Channel and includes the waters around
Lundy, which are the UK's first Marine Nature
Reserve a Marine Conservation Area. The Biosphere
Strategy makes the link between sustainable
resources and economic development and the NDFA
has done a lot of work on fisheries conservation
and sustainability.
This good work continues with the Association
putting Bristol Channel trawl caught bass through
the MSC Certification process. The Biosphere
Reserve helped helped with the pre-assessment
costs and the Co-op Group in Manchester are paying
£15,000 to take the bass through the process. Fish to buy and fish to
avoid.
24th September, 8pm to 9:30pm - see "End
of the Line", an important film about plight
of world's fisheries. The Plough Arts Centre,
Torrington. Andrew Bell
Coastwise
North Devon also nets awards
Maintaining the
marine theme, Coastwise North Devon has been
awarded two prestigious awards - The President's
Shield, and the North Devon AONB Coastal Award for
the Natural Environment - by the North Devon
Conservation Society for work on coastal
education, conservation, research and campaigning.
More Paula Ferris
Beach clean
bonanza
A big thank you to all those that organised and
took part in the spring and summer beach cleans at
Green Cliff, Downend, Croyde and Saunton beaches.
Together more than 170 volunteers collected some
200 bags of rubbish. Amongst the more unusual
items were a kitchen sink at Green Cliff, a road
cone at Downend and a child's pedal car at
Saunton. Look out for other beach cleans on the Biosphere events calendar.
North Devon's Biosphere Reserve is all about
looking after the environment not just because
it's the right thing to do, but also because it
benefits us all. Clean beaches contribute to the
local economy and each and every volunteer makes a
positive impact. Recent studies by the Marine
Conservation Society show that beach litter
levels have more than doubled in the last 15 years
and that rubbish is affecting our marine life and
our environment.
Northern Devon Coast and Countryside are
currently consulting to discover which beaches in
northern Devon are cleaned, who does it, when its
done and how they do it, and then plotting that
information on GIS to aid future planning and
coordination of beach cleans. Matt
Edworthy
Finding Sanctuary
Finding Sanctuary
is a partnership project which aims to secure a
healthy and productive future for the coasts and
seas of South West England.
Over four years,
the project will work with stakeholders to design
a network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). The
goal of the MPA network is to safeguard our
region's undersea habitats and marine life, and to
help ensure the long-term sustainability of marine
resources in the region.
There is going to
be a Devon group for Finding Sanctuary and the
Biosphere Reserve will be represented. Matt
Edworthy
Sabellaira reefs - look
out for them
Sabellaira alveolata or honeycomb worm
has been found on eleven north Devon beaches by
local volunteers. It is a UK Biodiversity Action
Plan (BAP) species and is therefore of
conservation concern. Colonies of this creature
have been recorded in north Devon before but new
colonies are being found as far north as Scotland
and Northern Ireland. Evidence suggests its
distribution is affected by rising sea
temperatures and that the species may be a useful
barometer of climate change.
The worm has a segmented cylindrical body about
4 cm long and lives in tubes that it builds from
sand or shell fragments. Colonies form a honeycomb
pattern coral on lower shore rocks close to sand.
As the tide rises the worms extend from their
tubes to feed on tiny particles in the sea water.
Sabellaria reefs are fragile ecosystems
that can be badly damaged by human activities such
as rock pooling.
Northern Devon Coast and Countryside Service
are plotting Sabellaria reef locations on
GIS. Emilie Le Barth
North Devon College
wins sustainable schools accolade
Keeping with
education, North Devon College has been selected
as the regional winner for the sustainable schools
category at the Teaching Awards regional final.
The judges were impressed by the "way they had
brought the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve into their
way of operating". The college runs a foundation
module in sustainable development, and works with
the Biosphere team to train businesses and
community groups on sustainability. The college
also won because of the Eco-House prototype on
site, the approach to food purchasing in the
restaurant, the electric cycle fleet and the
proposed new college building. Matt
Edworthy
Sea for life
success
Over 100 pupils and teachers from four local
schools got together on July 13th at Hallsannery
to celebrate and share their experiences of Sea 4
Life - an exciting and unusual project which has
combined art and science. Fiona
Fraser-Smith. More
Pupils at
Hallsannery and some of their
artwork
New learning
resources for the Biosphere Reserve
"People and their environment" is the name for
a new range of learning and teaching materials for
primary schools focused on North Devon's Biosphere
Reserve.
More than a dozen schools came to the special
launch day on June 23rd. During the day teachers
tried out the learning and teaching activities and
considered how they might be best adapted to the
context of their own schools. David
Weatherly. More
News from other
Biosphere Reserves
On the 8th June 2009, the Dyfi Valley in Wales joined us
in the family of new style Biosphere Reserves in
the world wide network. We are the only two in the
UK.
We in North Devon are pleased to have a second
community joining us on our journey towards a more
sustainable future. We share the aspiration of
Allan Wynne Jones from the Dyfi Biosphere
Partnership to be a place " recognised and
respected internationally and locally, not only
for natural beauty, heritage and wildlife, but
also for its people's efforts to make a positive
contribution to a more sustainable world."
It is great to have the voice of Biosphere
Reserves doubled in the UK, so that the programme
can be more widely recognised and supported. We
will be looking forward to collaboration with Dyfi
in the coming years.
Our old friends from Great Sandy were also formally
recognised as a Biosphere Reserve at the
international council meeting in South Korea. The
team from Great Sandy came to Braunton last year
to explore possible common areas of action as big
dune and coastal systems. The chairman of the
Great Sandy, being a great opportunist for
marketing, relayed the announcement at the MaB
International Co-coordinating Council meeting in
Jeju live via his mobile phone to the Australian
radio network.
Whilst our formal twinning
arrangement will only be with Malindi-Watamu in
Kenya for now, it is good to know that we can
bounce ideas with similar areas just a mouse click
away. Andy Bell.
Wildlife successes at
Fremington and Meddon
Fremington Cuttings (OS grid ref SS512331) part
of the Tarka Trail cycle route has just been
designated a County Wildlife Site (CWS), i.e. it
is of county significance for wildlife. Until
recently, it was overgrown with scrub but the hard
work of Coast and Countryside staff and volunteers
has really paid off because the site is now full
of wild flowers including four species of orchid.
Now scrub is reduced, management involves annual
vegetation cutting with the removal of cut
material. There is good potential for scrub
clearance on similar steep sided sections along
the old railway line.
The parkland at Hallsannery near Bideford was
also accepted as a County Wildlife Site in March
2009.
Meanwhile at Meddon Local Nature Reserve in
Hartland, SITA Trust support means that fencing
will soon be put up and conservation grazing can
start. The reserve is a small but important culm
grassland site of around 2 Hectares. Without
grazing the area would become completely overgrown
with willow and gorse and would lose the less
common flowers found there including southern
marsh orchid and slender St. John's Wort. Cattle
from a local grazier will only be on-site during
the summer because the site is much too wet in the
winter. Tom Hynes
Forestry
Commision consultation
The Commission is launching a public
consultation on the long-term role of the Public
Forest Estate in England. Deadline for responses
is 28 September 2009. More | 
