Pooling Resources
Sixteen volunteers from Canterbury came out to help
clear an overgrown pond on Bingley’s Island Local Nature Reserve in
Canterbury. They swept through the reed and willow growth in just a couple
of hours, pulling out rubbish as well as weed. The site, owned by
Canterbury City Council, is having a facelift to try and encourage more
use of the area by local people. Many different birds use this island and
the surrounding wet meadows both winter and summer. Spotted on the day
were kingfisher, green woodpecker, redwing and little grebe.
Channel Hopping
French and English volunteers battled against high winds
and driving rain to plant a hedgerow high on the Kent Downs on Saturday 31st
January. The task was part of a weekend work camp organised to promote
links with conservationists and landscape managers in northern France. Ten
members of Les Blongios or Little Bittern, a French conservation volunteer
group came over to help out, through funding from INTERREG. Les Blongios,
KSCP and the White Cliffs Countryside Project joined forces on Sunday 1st
February to clear half an acre of gorse from the downs above Folkestone.
Of course it wasn’t all work and no play – Saturday saw us all out in
Canterbury for a meal and one or two fine Kentish ales!
No Man’s Orchard Local Nature Reserve
On a gorgeous sunny day in October villagers from the
parishes of Chartham and Harbledown gathered to celebrate Apple day in No
Man’s Orchard. Apple Day celebrates the distinctiveness of local
orchards including the rich diversity of wildlife they support. Some 27
walkers led by KSCP joined in the celebrations as part of the Canterbury
Festival. There was a bumper crop of apples this year. Local people from
Harbledown and Chartham got their just rewards from the ‘Adopt a Tree’
scheme, whereby for an annual fee they can harvest as much fruit as they
like from ‘their’ tree. Volunteers from KSCP picked some of the
remaining crop, which was used to produce spray-free ‘No Man’s Orchard’,
apple juice.
Bats & Trains
As part of a Heritage Lottery funded project KSCP has
commissioned a sculpture from local artist Lynne Evison to commemorate the
Canterbury to Whitstable Railway line and the Tyler Hill Tunnel. An
interpretation panel to show the fascinating history of the world’s
first passenger railway tunnel is also to be produced. To get a clear
picture of exactly how bats are using the tunnel and the line, Kent Bat
Group, a key partner in this project, has been logging the level of bat
activity and environmental conditions in the tunnel since the autumn.
State of the art activity-loggers and even light enhancing night-scopes
have been used to count numbers of bats and of bat movements. Information
found about the bats will be used to improve management for bats of both
the tunnel and the Crab and Winkle Line.
