Gatley Carrs in December 2009 & January 2010

This is Peter Wolstenholme's midwinter report from Gatley Carrs at the eastern (Stockport) end of the Mersey Valley:

Early December temperature remained largely above freezing point. Several flocks of Pinkfeet flew high overhead in a westerly direction. Again there were small numbers of Canada Geese which were either at tree top height or on the pool when it was unfrozen. The first signs of spring were along the stream with blooming alder catkins and pussy willows. Siskins, Redpolls, Bullfinch, Chaffinch and Goldfinch fed among the alders.

Very cold weather with heavy frost and deep snow in early January brought Redwing and Fieldfare foraging in gardens for berries and apples. One or two Blackcaps appeared after the snow - probably winter visitors from central Europe. A Kingfisher on Christmas Day on the stream brought a flash of colour but there have been few seen since the very cold snap. The stream hosted Snipe and Gray Wagtail. During the colder weather Herons visited the stream and garden ponds and even foraged for carrion in the snow.

Throughout the period there were Kestrel, Sparrow Hawks and Buzzard visiting the Carrs. Birdsong has come from Collared Doves, Wood Pigeon, Robin and Dunnock but the numbers of singing Wrens has dropped as numbers have diminished with the cold weather. The milder weather of January has brought back the bright cheery phrases of song from the Song Thrush for the first time since very early autumn. During the next two months there should be plenty of new songsters as the spring chorus of birdsong begins to get established.

Bird feeders have attracted Bullfinch, Greenfinch, Blue, Great, Coal and Longtailed Tits. Birds have fed on Fat Balls, Peanuts, Pale bird seed and Blackbird seed. Some species especially Goldfinch are doing very well with flocks of 60 to 100 gathering in the treetops while others such as Wren seem to have dropped in numbers. Goldcrest have held on in the conifers near the entrance.

In the morning of mid January up to 30 Blackheaded Gulls fed on the playing fields - still in winter plumage. Flocks of up to 80 Jackdaws flew over to roost in late afternoons in a northerly direction and in the evening the hooting of Tawny Owls has come after nightfall.

A bird visit to the Solway Estuary in January brought sightings of an American Wigeon among European Wigeon and over 300 Whooper Swans at Caerlaverock, Purple Sandpiper and Greenshank on the shore at Southerness Point and over 10,000 Barnacle Geese on Blackshaw Merse

With best wishes,

Peter Wolstenholme RSPB Manchester and SK8

UN International Year of Biodiversity - January in South Manchester

So, we’re one month and a bit into 2010, the UN International Year of Biodiversity – how are we doing in South Manchester?

Well, as I predicted last December it’s not going terribly well – but not quite as bad as I expected.

We didn’t lose Hardy Farm, as seemed fairly certain a month ago, but the plans were not actually rejected by the Planning Committee because the developer withdrew his application before they could do so. That probably means that he is going to come back at some point with a revised plan – so it’s not over yet.

Contractors acting for the Environment Agency (EA) have been working on that part of Chorlton Brook which flows through the Chorlton Ees and Ivy Green Local Nature Reserve from Brookburn Road to the Mersey. On the plus side they’re actually doing this work during the winter - which makes a change from the usual ‘blitz-everything-during-the spring-just-as-the-birds-are-nesting’ approach. Nevertheless, they’ve chopped down some of the old, multi-stemmed White Willows which lined the brook and were something of a feature of it. No doubt someone decided that these trees were ‘diseased’ or ‘dangerous’ (or even ‘untidy’) – spurious reasons which are usually taken to be of much greater importance than the fact that the older the tree, the more important it is in biodiversity terms. Nevertheless, this is not an acceptable attitude on a nature reserve, where old trees (no matter how ‘decrepit’) are some of the most valuable organisms present. I will start to believe that the authorities have more than a token regard for biodiversity when they start valuing old trees rather than automatically and thoughtlessly cutting them down. Mind you, by that time we probably won’t have any old trees left to value!

The old trees that we have lost were covered in mosses and lichens and would have been rich in insects and other invertebrates. They would also have provided nesting and roosting opportunities for birds and bats. What is more, old trees develop more of these associations as they grow older. I suspect that they were just reaching a stage where they were beginning to become really interesting. Sadly, at this particular stage, they begin to look ‘untidy’ and ‘dangerous’, with broken limbs and rot holes, and some officious, know-nothing busybody is likely to come along and condemn them as ‘diseased’. No doubt they can be ‘dangerous’ ... if you stand underneath one in the middle of the night in a high wind! But this is also true of ‘healthy’ (looking) planted trees - which often have weakened root systems (quite a few of these have blown down in winter gales over the last few years).

I’m prepared to bet that, at some point, if this article and the protest letter I’ve written to the EA have any effect at all, they will promise to plant new trees. But, as I’ve argued many times before, tree planting has very little to do with conservation. Conservation is about valuing, retaining and enhancing what is there already – it is not about introducing new things.

The fate of the trunks and branches of the felled willows is also causing me some concern. At the moment they are stacked by various paths through the reserve. Already some of this wood has been shredded (in an industrial ‘tree-mincer’) and the resulting chippings sprayed on to the ground. Not only is this an unsustainable method of disposing of biomass, it also smothers the native vegetation. I am constantly amazed at the way the ‘tree-mincer’ operators always manage to choose the most sensitive areas possible to smother with their chippings. For example, on the north side of the brook there’s a little patch of a plant called Barren Strawberry (Potentilla sterilis) – it’s the only place in the whole reserve where this plant grows but it’s been unerringly smothered in chippings. On the south side there are some patches of an interesting plant called Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage (Chrysosplenium oppositifolium) and the biggest and best of these patches has been singled out for the chippings treatment. We’re also at risk of losing our only specimens of Hard Fern (Blechnum spicant), Yellow Loosestrife (Lysimachia vulgaris), Wood Anenome (Anenome nemorosa) and Black Currant (Ribes nigrum) which all grow on or near the banks of the brook.

It’s important to bear in mind, of course, that the EA are doing this work in order to protect us from flooding, but I can’t help thinking that if there was regular maintenance on the brook, rather than a major ‘blitzing’ every few decades, the effects on wildlife might be less catastrophic.

So it would seem that our Local Nature Reserve has almost certainly had its net biodiversity reduced; and it certainly hasn’t had it enhanced!

Elsewhere in South Manchester contractors working for the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive (GMPTE) have been working on the new Metrolink line which will eventually run from Old Trafford to Didsbury. You will recall that this service will follow the route of the old Midland Railway line – which was abandoned in the 1960s and had, in the intervening 50 years, transformed into a rich wildlife corridor. In spite of promises to conserve biodiversity along this route, not much of the embankments along the Old Trafford to Chorlton section seem to be left. This has caused so much concern among certain residents of properties adjoining the Chorlton to Didsbury section that they have attached “save our trees” notices to trackside trees and marked them off with yellow tape! GMPTE have promised to plant five trees for every one tree that they remove - but this is pure developers’ tokenism, and as the regions through which the line will run are heavily built up, it’s not at all clear where all these trees will be planted.

Anyone who has tried to walk along this route, in the last few years, will know that much of it is/was flooded. In an area where most of our historic ponds have disappeared these flooded areas formed an important local habitat for water plants, water-living invertebrates, amphibians etc. GMPTE have, rather belatedly, submitted some plans for some replacement ponds – but these are, surely, at least a couple of years too late?

So, where are we up to in South Manchester in this UN International Year of Biodiversity? Well: ‘quite a few losses, hardly any gains’, probably sums it up fairly well. There have been some concessions: like working in the winter rather than the spring (a big advance) - but there’s a general impression that engineering considerations come first and the obligations that organisations have towards biodiversity are still not taken as seriously as they should be, and tend to be seen as a bit of an afterthought, or even something to be avoided if possible.

I’m planning for this to be the first of a number of such articles on biodiversity in South Manchester during this important year. Although I shall have no hesitation in naming and shaming organisations which destroy our wildlife and their habitats this year, I will also be looking and reporting on any examples of good practise that I come across.

Dave Bishop, February 2010

Valuing Manchester's Wildlife Questionnaire

Manchester City Council would like the people of Manchester to have their say about wildlife in the city. They have therefore prepared a questionnaire entitled 'Valuing Manchester's Wildlife'. You can find it here:

http://survey.groundworknw.org.uk/Survey.aspx?s=391a096150e1459ea7d469deb1638c36

You may need to cut and paste this link into your browser.

To be quite honest I have some reservations about this (e.g. Should wildlife be the subject of a popularity contest? And will this jolt us out of the 'conservation is all about tree planting' groove that we seem to be stuck in?).

Nevertheless, I urge you all to fill this in and make your views known. The deadline for completing the questionnaire is the end of March. If you choose to fill in the 'About You' section at the end of the questionnaire, your details will be entered into a prize draw.

Dave Bishop, January 2010

A Famous Victory in the Fight for Hardy Farm!

Yesterday was a great day for the Mersey Valley, and the local community in Chorlton and South Manchester, when Manchester City Council Planning and Highways Committee rejected plans to build a huge sporting complex on Hardy Farm.

The day started with a visit, by the Committee, to the site. The ‘Save Chorlton Meadows’ group were well prepared for this visit: the proposed astro-turf and all-weather pitches had been marked out with tape and members of the group were stationed at the corners with large red balloons. Other, helium filled, balloons on 49 ft long strings, indicated the positions and heights of the proposed floodlights. Several members of the group addressed the committee but the key speakers were local residents Nigel Lewis, Karen Pertoldi and me. I restricted my remarks to the subject of local biodiversity but the other speakers covered other topics including noise and light pollution, access and visual amenity. Other people, of the 100 or so people who attended, had an opportunity to express their own concerns – for example one lady raised the very important subject of possible contamination from the underlying tip if the overlying soil cap were to be disturbed. I thought that all of the speakers expressed very eloquently to the Committee the importance of this much loved open, green space to the local community. Although passions were running high on the day, and there was a lot at stake, the event was generally peaceful and restrained with only a couple of raised voices.

In the afternoon we all went to Manchester Town Hall to hear the debate in the council chamber. Jonathan Green spoke for the action group and, in a heroic effort, managed to convey most of our concerns in the scant four minutes allowed. Local politicians, Cllr. Sheila Newman, Cllr. Val Stevens, Cllr. Paul Ankers, Cllr. Norman Lewis and John Leech MP all then spoke out against the development. It’s been a feature of this campaign that all of the local politicians have supported it. The agent for the West Didsbury and Chorlton Football Club then spoke in support of the development (he was also allowed four minutes).

The Committee then debated the issue. The Chair of the Committee, Cllr. Tony Burns, indicated that the formal debate was not a public event and that members of the public could not participate. To be honest I was expecting the worst – after all the Council’s own officers, in their report, had been “minded to approve” the development; so when Cllr. Andrew Fender, who opened the debate, ended his remarks by stating that he could not support it my jaw dropped! Several other members of the Committee also spoke out against the plans and the vote, when it came, was unanimous – the Committee moved to reject the development.

What followed was a bit of an anti-climax. Cllr. Burns instructed the Council Officers to prepare a case justifying the Committee’s decision and to submit this by the end of that day’s meeting. I think that the members of the Action Group were somewhat puzzled by this procedural nicety and sort of drifted off in a bit of a daze. I’d certainly had more excitement than I could cope with by that point so went to the pub with a couple of friends.

I think that Karen Pertoldi nicely summed up the day, and the campaign generally, in a subsequent email:

“... what a wonderful example of community spirit, team work, brilliant organisation, never ending positivity and enthusiasm, and determination not to give up. People power at its best.”

Although we’ve got every right to celebrate we must bear in mind that it’s not over yet. The Football Club still owns the land and they can appeal against the Committee’s decision or submit scaled down plans at a later date. We should not disband the Action Group just yet.

So that’s twice now, in 20 years, that I’ve been involved in battles over attempts to develop Hardy Farm. The first time was over UMIST’s plans to stabilise the water-logged pitches, by dumping builders’ rubble on to them, in 1990 (see ‘The Great Mersey Valley Revolt of 1990, FoCM blog 08.05.2009). It just goes to show that the Mersey Valley, whoever may own bits of it, is very much seen as a vital, and much loved, community resource and that, when it’s threatened, local people will fight to conserve it. Developers and spoilers beware! We’ve got teeth!

Dave Bishop, 15.01.2010

Volunteers' Day, Sunday 10th January 2010 Cancelled

We have decided to cancel Sunday's volunteers' day because of the weather. I'm sure that you wouldn't want to be shovelling the frozen snow off scrub before you could cut it down!

Dave Bishop, 7th January 2010

2010: UN International Year of Biodiversity

Well, we’re only a day or so from 2010 which you may, or may not, know will be the UN International Year of Biodiversity. You can read more about it here: http://www.countdown2010.net/year-biodiversity. As this website tells us:

“The year 2007 marked a milestone: it has seen the turning point at which more people live in cities than in rural areas. According to UN projections, 85% of world population growth between 2000 and 2010 will be in urban areas. Cities are therefore responsible for the well being of the majority of the world population, which is directly linked to sound biodiversity management. As urbanization is leading to an increase in their size, they also control an increasingly vast area of land. The concept of urban biodiversity is therefore becoming extremely important. As a result, cities need to take up the challenge of halting the loss of biodiversity by taking biodiversity into account in their decision making process.”

So is Manchester taking up this challenge? I’ve searched the Council’s website (http://www.manchester.gov.uk/) and I cannot find a single mention of the UN International Year of Biodiversity. On their associated ‘Wildaboutmanchester’ website (http://www.wildaboutmanchester.info/site/) I did find some stuff about a ‘record breaking’ tree planting attempt earlier this month. Apparently:

Manchester residents assembled in five different locations across the city on Saturday 5 December to take part in the BBC Breathing Spaces Tree O'clock event.
This hour long planting session was part of a nationwide bid, not only to beat the world record for the number of trees planted within an hour, but also to raise awareness about how important trees are to the environment. Events took place in various parts of the city and over 11,000 trees were planted in the hour provided
Councillor Richard Cowell said: "Tree O'clock is a wonderful campaign to spread the word about the benefits of trees to the environment, so it's fitting that we're supporting it here, where tree-planting has always been a top priority.”

Sadly it now appears to be the only priority! Which is odd as tree planting actually has very little to do with conservation. As one of our most distinguished experts on the British countryside, Dr Oliver Rackham puts it:

“Tree planting is not synonymous with conservation; it is an admission that conservation has failed.” (Rackham, O., ‘The History of the Countryside’, Dent, 1986).

Perhaps it’s not so odd if you consider that tree planting is also easy, cheap, highly visible (an important characteristic of a token) and ideal for facile publicity stunts like record tree planting attempts. On the down side it diverts attention from the continuing degradation and destruction of our remaining scraps of local biodiversity and far too often the trees are planted in the midst of our even smaller scraps of species-rich and rough grasslands - which are much more important, in wildlife terms, than a few planted trees. There’s much more to say about tree planting but I’ll finish this bit by reminding the Council that trees plant themselves (and have been doing for millions of years without the Council’s help) and that old trees are hundreds of times more important, in biodiversity terms, than planted saplings, but we’re losing more and more old trees locally at a ferocious rate. The Environment Agency has been doing some work along Chorlton Brook recently. Ostensibly this was to shore up the banks but they, almost casually, cut down many of the large White Willows along these banks, which means that we’ve lost some of the oldest and most valuable trees in the district – and no amount of tree planting will make up for this loss. This, for me, is an indication of the real contempt that the local authorities have for local biodiversity.

So what might be happening to biodiversity, in South Manchester, in 2010? To be quite honest it’s not looking good (in fact it’s looking terrible!). As soon as spring and the bird nesting season arrives, the Mersey Valley will no doubt ring to the sound of motors and engines as contractors of various sorts apply their chainsaws, strimmers, herbicide sprays and heavier machinery to the vegetation of any wild bits they can find left, and the birds will be driven from their nests and the wild plants will be cut down in flower and fail to set seed. As in previous years, if challenged, the workmen will claim that what they’re doing is absolutely necessary and furthermore they have a legal right to do it, no matter how destructive it might be. That’s why I call them ‘licensed eco-vandals’ by the way!

Until recently we had a linear wildlife corridor stretching from Old Trafford to Didsbury. This was, of course the route of the old Midland Railway line closed by Dr Beeching in the 1960s. As we all know this is to be the route for the new Metrolink line. The Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive (GMPTE) made all sorts of extravagant promises for conserving biodiversity along this route but I have to confess that I’m not very impressed with progress so far. Much of the route was/is flooded and these water bodies were/are full of frogs and newts. GMPTE claimed that they would be ‘re-housing’ the displaced amphibians but, apart for a small, cheap makeshift pond in a small field behind Chorlton Leisure Centre, the ponds have not (to the best of my knowledge) materialised yet. I wonder what the amphibians are supposed to do in the meantime? Die, I suppose ... ?
But local conservationists really lost faith in GMPTE’s promises when, in March 2009, they cut down an avenue of mature trees between St Werburgh’s Road and Mauldeth Road West. To the best of our knowledge this avenue had not even been surveyed by independent ecologists so no-one really knows what effect its destruction has had upon the local ecology. Mind you I do question the point of commissioning surveys when you are intending to destroy what the surveyors find!
I have to tell you, though, that GMPTE are going to plant five trees for every tree that they cut down. When I read promises like this I imagine a workman walking into the Sistine Chapel and saying: “We’re going to have to sandblast this ceiling you know. But, never mind, when we’ve finished we’ll give it a nice coat of whitewash!”

And, of course, the fate of Hardy Farm hangs in the balance. For those of you who have been on another planet recently, a massive, floodlit sporting complex is planned for this site - which is rich in birds, plants and insects and contains within its boundaries part of a Site of Biological Importance (SBI). As consultees in the planning process Greater Manchester Ecology Unit stated that:
“The creation of the new sports pitches will result in a loss of botanical diversity and a loss of nature conservation potential.”

And they concluded that:

“The proposed development will detrimentally affect habitats and species in the area by causing direct and indirect loss of habitats. The adjacent SBI will be directly and indirectly affected by the development proposals.”

In spite of this, and many more objections, Manchester City Council Planning Department have decided that they are “minded to approve” this development. The Council Planning and Highways Committee are due to visit the site at around 10:15 am on the 14th January 2010; they will then vote on the matter, in the Town Hall, in the afternoon. Will they take biodiversity into account, in the UN International Year of Biodiversity? Well, we’ll just have to wait and see ...
Still, it’s nice to know that the developer is going to plant some trees if he gets his planning permission!

Dave Bishop, December 2009

Sunday's Volunteers' Day Cancelled

We've decided to cancel Sunday's Volunteers' Day because of the weather (we don't think that it's going to get any warmer!). So see you all in January.

Actually, speaking of January, John Agar and I are going for a walk on New Year's Day (just a gentle-ish stroll to fettle us after the festivities). If you'd like to join us we're meeting at 12:30 at the Ivy Green car park on Brookburn Road. A 'de-brief' in a pub might well be in order afterwards.

Dave Bishop, December 2009