Posts from the “Environment” Category
08/06/2011 No comments

Dorset stag beetle sightings increase

Stag Beetle seen in profile from low angle

A stag beetle on a log, photographed by Nigel Brooks. Britain's largest beetle likes to live in dead wood.

UNUSUALLY high numbers of stag beetles are being seen in Dorset this year.

Dorset Wildlife Trust says the county’s unusually hot Spring seems to have brought these fantastic creatures out nearly a month earlier than normal.

Steve Halliwell, project co-ordinator for the Trust’s Wildlife On Your Doorstep Project, said: “Early this June, as I was relaxing in the garden one warm evening, I saw at least a dozen male stag beetles fly over, a phenomenon I have never witnessed before.”

Stag beetles are globally threatened. In Britain they’re protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

To see just one is a treat.

The male can grow up to 7.5 cms long – it’s Britain’s largest beetle – while the female rarely gets past 4.5 cms. However, the male is harmless, while the female can have a nasty bite.

Stag beetle numbers have been dropping since the 1940s, because of the destruction of their favoured dead wood habitats.

Dorset Wildlife Trust wants people to be less tidy in their gardens, and leave out old logs as possible places for stag beetles to live.

The Trust’s ‘Wildlife On Your Doorstep’ project offers a free information pack including  gardening tips, wildlife identification charts and recording sheets.

For more information see www.dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/woyd or contact Steve Halliwell at shalliwell@dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk or ring Dorset Wildlife Trust on 01202 692033. The code is for the conurbation because Bournemouth is one of the UK’s hotspots for stag beetles.
25/02/2011 No comments

Wind turbines plan for prominent West Dorset beauty spot

Radio masts at Rampisham photographed by Nigel Mykura

The blades of the wind turbines proposed for Toller Down would reach roughly the same height as the radio masts at Rampisham by the A356 in West Dorset. Photograph by Nigel Mykura, reused under Creative Commons Licence.

TWO WIND turbines reaching as high into the sky as the biggest masts at Rampisham radio station could be erected on the summit of Toller Down in Dorset.

Farmer Henry Lovegrove, of Comforts Orchard, Corscombe, wants to put a pair of turbines near the A356, up along from the Rampisham site.

The machines could generate enough electricity to power about 100 homes.

A design and access statement supporting Mr Lovegrove’s planning application acknowledges that two 34.2m high structures would be visible for many miles across the West Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

But it argues that “the skyline has already dramatically been broken” by the radio masts at Rampisham and the mobile telephone masts at Winyard’s Gap.     

And it claims: “The proposed turbines at Toller Down will enhance the area’s eco-credentials rather than ruin the skyline further.”

The nearest property is about 500 metres away.

In the video from Transition Vision TV’s Farming Channel that accompanies this piece, Mr Lovegrove says that if planning permission is granted the next stage will be “to go out to to tender, because I haven’t got any money, to developers, and ask them to quote a price for ground rental.”

He adds: “There is some pressure to get the local community to invest in this, and that will also be a question I’ll be asking the developers, to see if they will offer the opportunity to people in the locality to invest in these turbines, so they actually feel they own local energy production.”

The application is strongly supported by Corscombe Parish Council, while individuals from across Dorset and Somerset have also backed Mr Lovegrove’s vision.

“Bring them on and save our planet,” writes Ricky Hawkins from Shepton Beauchamp in Somerset.

“I doubt that they will offend the eye,” writes Ali Cameron, who indicates that he will be able to see them from his home in Marshwood.

Rev David Harknett, of the Melbury Team Ministry, writes: “The turbines seem very appropriate in an AONB. After all, we are seeking to safeguard the outstanding beauty of our whole planet!” 

Objectors include the Boileaus from Witcham Farm in Rampisham.

They say: “The dowland ridge has more than enough ugly clutter along its length.”

They add: “Off shore wind farms have been approved for Dorset, therefore we have more than contributed to the ‘green power movement’”.

And they conclude: “Applications of this sort are all about money. We would like to suggest that in the unlikely event the application is approved, it should be on condition that 90% of the money generated is distributed to the rural area and individuals blighted by these machines.”
31/01/2011 2 Comments

New life for Dorset’s wild chalk rivers

WATER is flowing through a new Dorset chalk stream created as part of a project to restore the county’s alluring network of winterbournes.

Six hundred and fifty metres of land were dug out at Winterborne Herringston about two miles south west of Dorchester.

Dorset Wild Rivers project work at Winterborne Herringston

A new channel being created at Winterborne Herringston. Photograph by Sarah Williams.

Water flowing through new winterbourne at Winterborne Herringston, Dorset

Water flowing through the new channel at Winterborne Herringston. Doesn't it look great? Photograph by Sarah Williams.

It’s hoped it will provide a habitat for a rare water crowfoot and invertebrates such as the threatened mayfly Paraleptophlebia werneri and the rare blackfly Simulium latipes.

Brown trout are among the fish expected to use the new stream for spawning in wet winters.

Winterbournes are wild rivers that only flow during wet winters when the land can soak up no more.

They have a lovely lively swing.

The Dorset Wild Rivers project is being co-ordinated by Sarah Williams of Dorset Wildlife Trust. Areas covered include the Frome and Piddle Valleys and the chalk stream tributaries of the Stour, Allen, Tarrant and North Winterbornes.  

She said: “Winterbournes are very special, appearing and disappearing quite naturally and providing a rare environment for wildlife.

“With our partners we want to see them flourishing again in their secretive way as part of Dorset’s network of wild chalk rivers.

“We have had previous success on the South Winterbourne at Winterborne Came, with both rare mayflies and blackflies recorded in the first season, so we have great hopes for Winterborne Heringston this spring.”

The Dorset Wild Rivers project is being led by Dorset Wildlife Trust with funding from the Environment Agency and Wessex Water.

Other partners include the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG), Dorset Biodiversity Partnership, the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), Queen Mary University of London, Natural England and Purbeck Heritage Committee.
07/01/2011 32 Comments

Eype Beach to be sold. Possible price: £1 (UPDATED)

EYPE BEACH near Bridport – part of Dorset’s world-famous Jurassic Coast – is to be sold by West Dorset District Council.

The beach’s value is reckoned by the council to be £1.

“Anticipated proceeds” from the sale of Eype Beach are also officially recorded as £1.

So could you or I buy it for £1?