It’s hard for us to believe but we’ve now been with DWT for six months. It’s been a busy time that has seen us losing our wellies in mires, lost on foggy mo
ors, and waist deep in muddy ditches which pong. We have, however, enjoyed working on the reserves and experiencing the wide variety of habitats that DWT looks after. To help preserve these habitats we’ve carried out lots of scrub clearance and selective felling with chainsaws, mostly birch, willow and gorse. As well as felling trees we’ve also planted trees, sounds like a contradiction but it’s what and where that counts! The work has also involved mending fencing for stock control, boardwalk repairs so our visitors can continue to enjoy the reserves with relative ease, coppicing, swaling (very exciting, and can turn a freezing wintry day into a blaze of heat) and hedge laying. Some of our more entertaining moments have been trying to master the bowline knot for use when winching trees (turns out this is far more complicated than just a rabbit, a hole, and a tree) and we’re experts at getting our ‘off road’ landrovers bogged down!
As well as learning from practical tasks we’ve also ‘bandaged each other up’ in first aid training, completed two chainsaw courses and next month we’ll attend a brushcutter course.
The winter work is coming to an end now and we’ll soon start carrying out more wildlife surveys. We’ve already seen the fi
rst butterflies (comma, tortoiseshell and brimstone) and reptiles like common lizards, and an adder which was happy to pose for a picture.
‘There’s no denying it, Christmas is here! While we stock up our larders with mince pies and other festive nibbles, DWT’s beavers are also preparing for a cold winter by building up their food stores (known as caches pictured left). Beavers do not hibernate in the winter, but – much like us – they tend to stay in their cosy lodges (pictured below) if weather conditions are poor, and having a food source nearby means they can minimise their exposure to the winter weather. After a summer of feasting on succulent grasses and saplings they now turn to woodier foodstuffs, storing branches underwater so that they can still be accessed if their pond freezes over in the coming months. It’s a far cry from the over-indulgence most of us will experience during the festive season. In fact, the beavers’ energy needs will not be met by their food cache alone so they will also use up the fat reserves in their tails and slow down their metabolisms to conserve energy. If only their Yule “logs” were as calorific as ours!’
Merry Christmas everyone
Marine Conservation Zones 
But what does it mean for Devon? The blunt answer is that a mere four of the 17 sites proposed may get designated next year. One of these, Lundy, is already a no-take zone and so we are only really looking at three new sites. None of the south Devon river estuaries has been included, and no sites at all have been included on the north Devon coast!
First, we need to make sure that all the 31 potential sites are designated next year – this is certainly not a foregone conclusion, and we can expect plenty of resistance. Secondly, we will be pulling out all the stops to gather the evidence needed to make the best possible case for designating the remaining sites over the coming years. And finally, we will be pushing as hard as we can for effective protection of MCZs once they are officially in place.
‘In the volley of headlines about budget difficulties this summer, three bits of news quietly slipped under the radar. The first – sea ice in the arctic melted to a far greater extent than ever before. The second – half of the Great Barrier Reef destroyed in 25 years. The main culprits for both are warmer temperatures and more acid seas. Both of these are liked to CO2 emissions.
‘What do the white clawed crayfish and the heath fritillary butterfly have in common? They are both in danger of becoming extinct in Devon. What does this mean, and should we care?
‘I am always struck by how passionately we fight for our local environment. It’s almost as if the view from our house, those gently sculpted hills, woods and fields, are extensions of ourselves.
‘A dismal cloud hangs over the ash tree. Chalara Fraxinea or ash dieback, is creeping across Europe like a morbid tide. Denmark has lost 90% of its ash trees. And the disease is now firmly established in Britain.
Attend one of these events to find out more about DWT’s River Otter Project and the Water Framework Directive.
year as Trustee Andrew Cooper explains:
The glow-worm campaign this summer has been a great success with more than 300 surveys submitted by the public. DWT would still like to hear about your sightings this year or in previous years. Please fi ll in an online survey today. Results of the survey will be announced in Network News.
