BioPartner E-bulletin

London Woodland Habitat Action Plan

Action so far has focussed on working up a major project, Capital Woodlands, which seeks to improve London’s woodlands for both people and wildlife.  London-wide activities in the project include strengthening links between woodlands and communities and support and recruitment of volunteers.  Site specific work will also be undertaken in six woods, such as working with the local community and establishing support groups; improved access and interpretation; and management for biodiversity. The six sites are: Peabody Hill, LB Lambeth; Birch & Rowdown Woods, LB Croydon; Morden Park, LB Merton; Scadbury Park, LB Bromley; Coldfall Wood, LB Havering; and Claybury Wood, LB Redbridge.

A partnership of bodies will soon be making a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund for the Capital Woodlands project.  The initial bid will be for a Project Planning Grant, which will allow a full bid for the project to be put together.  A consultant assisted putting together this initial bid; this was funded by the Forestry Commission.  It has been decided that the Project Officer post will be hosted by Trees for London.

The Woodland Habitat Action Plan for London was published in 2001 and the Greater London Authority leads it.  The Plan is currently under review. 

Contact: Meg Game, GLA, meg.game@london.gov.uk

Black Redstart 

Dusty et al has so far raised £42,000 for a green roof and biodiversity PhD at Royal Holloway College with further contribution of £15,000 from LDA over 3 years.  The study will be on a number of green/brown roofs in Deptford and Canary wharf and a number of brownfield sites in the areas.  The study will also include a green roof laboratory on a new roof at Canary Wharf.  This will provide a number of sample trays with varying substrates and planting regimes. The focus of the study will be invertebrates and there is hope that birds will also be studied. 
The green roof laboratory will be launched later in the year. 

dustygedge@yahoo.co.uk

Action Plan Review & Funding Strategy

The Action Plan review is underway and we are set to be able to publish the updated plans by December. Two new plans are being developed; Reedbeds led by WWT and Built Environment which is set to become a generic action plan and will be lead by Peabody Trust.
The funding Strategy is now available and the Funding Strategy Group will be meeting at the end of this month to decide the best way forward.  You can obtain copies from Jan Hewlett (jan.hewlett@london.gov.uk) and it’ll shortly be available from our website.

New Signatories of the MoU & new Project Board members

In the next few days we will have three new signatories to our MoU the Woodland Trust, LB of Havering and Thames Chase.  With these three new additions we now have 34 organisations.
The Project Board now has three new members; the Peabody Trust, LNHS and ALG.  Election or re-election of the group’s chair will take place at their next meeting, 10th of October.

The Sara Hawkswell’s Report; ‘LBP and Records Centre Working Together’

By now you should all received a copy of the Partnership & Records Centre joined response to Sara’s recommendations.  Please get in touch if you would like to receive a copy of the full report.

Heathland

Over the summer, the heathland HAP working group has been engaged in a series of meetings to discuss the potential for restoration on key heathland sites.  The results will be published as a recommended program of restoration in the London Heathland Recovery Strategy, later this year.  It is hoped that this strategy will herald a turning point in securing the future for the habitat on London’s heaths and commons.  During the meeting program, several new findings included a major heathland creation project on National Trust land in Bromley.

The long dry summer has left heath and acid grassland sites particularly vulnerable to accidental and deliberately ignited fires.  A series of damaging blazes on Hounslow Heath has put the heathland restoration project here back by several years.  Expensive fencing and other valuable infrastructure has been lost along with over a hectare of restored heather Calluna vulgaris cover.  Barnes Common too, suffered a huge conflagration which affected a large area of important acid grassland, gorse Ulex europaeus scrub and secondary woodland. 

Finally, the HAP has a new lead in Paul Losse, replacing Alex Machin at English Nature.  In conjunction with the acid grassland HAP, the steering group is in the very early stages of organising a one-day seminar aimed at London’s heathland golf course managers, to take place early in 2004.

Wetland Project

WWT is currently preparing a proposal for a London-wide Wetland Project under the Partnership’s umbrella.  Initial talks were held last July between WWT’s and some of our partners including the Peabody Trust, EN, GLA, British Waterways and the Borough of Wandsworth.  The project’s initial objectives include review/action planning and advocacy (probably linked to the Thames Gateway issue of incorporating ‘people and wildlife’ elements into the grand scheme).  It is also planned that the project will also have significant community participation and learning component and links will be made with others organisations working in this field.  WWT is currently preparing a second draft proposal and further meetings will be held shortly to discuss the project’s relation with other wetland related APs, inclusion of other key players and funding and the recruitment of a Wetlands Project Officer.

For more information contact Richard Bullock richard.bullock@wetlandcentre.org.uk 

TEP Business Conservation Forum

The Thames Estuary Partnership is to hold a Business Conservation Forum on 8th October.  The Forum has been set up to forge stronger links with industry and commerce in the estuary region. 

The event is targeting a diverse range of groups and organisations that form the business sector to engage them with key sustainability issues of TEP partners. 

The day will be split between a morning session of presentations and discussion, led by Chris Baines (President of TEP), followed by a site visit and boat trip leaving from Greenwich Pier.  The Forum aims to build a circle of enthusiastic contacts from the business world who feel well briefed on the issues and can carry our enthusiasm on to their colleagues.

The discussion will help us gain a greater insight into how direct involvement with the TEP will appeal to the business sector by identifying what issues are most likely to appeal to its key opinion formers.

For more information contact Jonathan Ducker, Biodiversity and Fisheries Officer (j.ducker@geog.ucl.ac.uk)

Thames Festival Birdwatch 

Pete Massini and Rachel Cook braved the adverse weather conditions (not really it was just too early) and stood from 6am to 6pm on the Southbank to raise awareness of the importance of the Thames for birds and other wildlife.  I joined them at 1pm by which time Pete was on autopilot providing the festival goers with an update of the birds seen up and down the river.  Thanks to Rachel and Julie Jamieson’s superb outgoing personalities more than 300 leaflets were handed out promoting the river’s ever increasing biodiversity.  Some of the birds spotted included 20 Snipe and a Red Kite at the Wetland Centre, Golden Plover at Rainham, Guillimot at Crayford and a peragrine near the Tate Modern.
Although the event was a success in terms of public awareness it needed more volunteers in key positions to gather more records.  There are plans to carry out a second Birdwatch day if there is enough interested people; if you’d like more information contact Pete Masinni (pete.massini@English-Nature.Org.UK) and Rachel Cook (rachel.cook@English-Nature.Org.UK).

New Fish species for the Thames.

The water quality of tidal sections of the River Thames has witnessed a steady recovery since the 1960s and this improvement, as a result of sewage and industrial effluent treatment processes, has led to a steady increase in the number of species that have recolonised this River.  One part of this success story has been the number of fish found to inhabit this watercourse and another new species has recently been recorded taking the count up to 121.  A Tompot Blenny Parablennius gattorugine was caught during routine sampling carried out by the Thames Estuary Partnership and Environment Agency at Tilbury Power Station situated on the north bank of the lower estuary.  The species usually inhabits inshore waters hiding in holes and between boulders and is often a photographic treat during shallow dives under piers and sea structures.  The tompot blenny is not common to the North Sea and the capture was quite a surprise although it just proves how dynamic the Thames environment is.

(j.ducker@geog.ucl.ac.uk)

Interesting Events

Oxford Monday, 20th October 2003-  BioWatch UK workshop; Why involve volunteers in biodiversity monitoring?  For more information contact: sarah.gillett@eci.ox.ac.uk

29th-30th October, 2003 New York Academy of Sciences. Urban Biosphere & Society: Partnership of Cities.
For information and registration, contact Melody Corry: corry@un.org

11th of December, London.  UK BAP Regional Meeting
For more info contact: cgault@wildlife-trusts.cix.co.uk

2 February 2003.  World of Wetlands.  Traditionally the Ramsar Bureau provides materials for the use of everyone who will be organising WWD activities of their own
For more information contact Valerie Higgins - higgins@ramsar.org