Literally London

One of the rewards of being a speaker are the questions that interested listeners ask at the end of a talk or workshop. The church group that I met recently was especially well informed and their questions were perceptive and probing. My statement that I would be travelling to London after the lunchtime session to attend the launch of the Cheltenham Literature festival prompted the response – Why London and why the festival? Good questions, thoughtfully placed by a polite sceptic.

I met my colleague Emma, who had the bright idea of linking with the festival, at the launch party. She was already deep in conversation with a member of the festival launch team. The reason that the Cheltenham Literature Festival was launched at the London Library in St James’ Square was quite simple. The majority of literary folk and media promoters are based in London and a reception there is much better attended than one at the Pump Rooms. Writers, publishers and publicists are all happy to visit Cheltenham for their respective events, but not for canapés and speeches.

The trip was well worth it for us. We did not go just to mix with Barry Norman, Claire Short, June Bakewell or Kate Aidey, we particularly wanted to meet the managing team and speak with them about our Manty Don event in October.

The Chairman of the festival, Sir Michael McWilliam KCMG, was particularly interesting and interested. He understood very well that one of the big challenges for nature conservation charities like the Trust is to explain its work to the widest audience. He fully understood that our interest in the Literature Festival is that nature has been a theme within the Arts for millennia. Art lovers are a natural audience for the message and by supporting Monty Don, a passionate enthusiastic for plants and wildlife, the Trust will benefit from his personal commitment and networks.

Train services from London to Gloucestershire in the evenings are poor and Emma and I had to leave the event early for Paddington station. Always the good leader, Emma made sure that her support team back at the office did not miss out on one of the goody bags. Frankie and Alice, who will be working with Monty Don at his talk on October 17th were very happy not to have been forgotten Cinderellas!

Electric Blue

The electric-blue flash of a Kingfisher on the River Cam this morning made my walk with Millie the Labrador special and suggested that this might be a special day.

It is not yet 3:00pm but things are going well. I have finished a successful talk to the Gloucestershire Churches Environmental Justice Network at our centre at Robinswood Hill and I am waiting to make a journey to the official opening of the Cheltenham Literature Festival.

My first meeting of the day was a really pleasant catch-up session with Richard Skeehens, MD of Grundon Waste, and Ruth Roll of RR Environmental Communications Ltd. We have not met for a number of months and an update on the biodiversity work that the Trust has been able to compete with Landfill Community Fund donations from Grundon was very timely.

Grants and donations are the route by which the Trust is able to supplement the generous contributions that our members make to run the Trust and enable it to carry our novel conservation work in the county. Grundon have been extremely generous since the inception of the Landfill Tax scheme in around 1993.

The current total that Grundon has given the Trust to spend on its work is a massive £1.3 million! These donations have transformed the Trust’s ambition and capacity and enabled it to plan further ahead, in reasonable confidence of success.

Planning for 2010 is well underway and the continuing support of Grundon is enabling us to design a major new conservation campaign. The electric blue Kingfisher is a good symbol of the new work that will be started next April. I am not a believer in synchronicity, but sometimes I wonder if chance is more than a statistical function.

Kingfisher (c) Kenny Crook

Arvicola terrestris – The Water Vole

An important part of ensuring that the Wildlife Trust runs smoothly is the care that is taken of the staff and volunteers who drive our business of conservation.

Each month a simple questionnaire is whizzed around on email so that individuals can comment on how things are going. This time my colleague Elaine asked us all to give any reasons we have for enjoying working with the Trust. My two most important statements (excluding the strong birthday cake culture that we have!) are those of ‘enjoying the work’ and ‘achieving conservation results’.

Our current focus for conservation programmes is the lovely little Water Vole. This creature is an icon of what conservation is all about. It is harmless, does not damage river banks or nearby crops, does not carry any serious diseases and the chance of this small vegetarian harming livestock is remote.

But the Water Vole is in big trouble. Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust surveys, completed periodically across the past thirty years, have revealed a massive decline in water vole numbers.

On the Cotswold Rivers, those small populations that still survive are all too small and isolated for long term survival. If no action is taken, this harmless and attractive creature will become extinct here as it has done already in Cornwall and is perilously close to in Devon.

As much as we like Stephen Fry, we would not want him puffing along the River Churn in twenty years time looking for our last remaining vole! But the case is frighteningly close. Gloucestershire people can not expect rhinos, dolphins, manatee and other exotic creatures to be conserved if we do not look after our own native wildlife.

The great news is that there are good value solutions and they are already working in another part of the county. My colleague John Field has been busy for the last 18 months turning conservation theory into new voles. Working with landowners, who are the single most important people in water vole conservation, he has been successful in achieving measurable results (more voles!) along lengths of watercourse in the Vale of Berkeley. The techniques are simple and straightforward, but their application takes time, patience and careful riverside management. These factors are not cheap but the results are very encouraging.

Water voles need plenty of riverside cover, toothsome grasses and sedges, and no Mink. To achieve this mixture, cattle and other large creatures must be kept well back from the waterside with fencing and overhanging trees thinned or pollarded. Predatory Mink are the critical ingredient in the water vole recipe. Careful and continuous control of this efficient non-native predator is critical. American Mink ‘hoover up’ Water Voles, the two animals just don’t get along together!

In the course of designing the next phases of the Trust’s vole programme we have enjoyed much amusement whilst planning and budgeting furiously. The vole-word has become part of a continuous stream of odd jokes, much in the vein of Radio 4 ‘I’m sorry I haven’t a Clue’. Puns about Voleunteers, Voletmeters and Revoleution give fun to the working day. However, the cleverest joke of all was made by the photographer from Cotswold Life who came to take photographs for their October edition in which I'm interviewed. Her instant response to one of our dodgy vole jokes was to respond with "Volegarians"!

Water Vole (c) Steven Dorey

Raising Funds

I am proud to be a Rotarian, albeit a serial underachiever due to work time restricting my freedom to attend meetings. Rotarians raise enormous sums of money both at the local level, such as my Dursley Rotary Club and through Rotary International. The Jessie May Trust, GL11 Community Project, Acorns, Yercombe Lodge and Cotswold Care Hospice are all currently benefiting from the Dursley club’s activities.

Amateur fundraising is impressive but as charities grow, the need for a professional approach becomes essential. The Wildlife Trust needs £800,000 a year to carry out its core work protecting Gloucestershire’s wildlife for Gloucestershire people. This is no minor challenge and needs a very organised and hard working team to keep the funds flowing.

When we want to carry out ambitious, cutting edge work, the costs are quite scary. My current challenge with the team is to safeguard the future of the water vole in the Cotswolds. To employ expert staff to do this for the next five years will cost over £0.5M! If we take no action we could end up like Cornwall, which has lost its whole water vole population.

I recently met the creative minds of Square Peg with my team. This specialist agency is advising us how to explain the mysteries of isolated water voles populations, habitat fragmentation and predation by unwanted foreign mustelids, into plain English. We know what we want to do and how it will prevent the water vole becoming extinct along entire reaches of the Rivers Leach, Evenlode, Windrush and more. If we take no action the future for the friendly and harmless little Ratty, the character from Wind in the Willows, is bleak.

If a rich and prosperous county like Gloucestershire does not take action to protect a rapidly declining mammal, we do not have any right to expect third world citizens to defend the Tiger, Rhinoceros or Panda. Creativity and professional fund raising can make all the difference between success and failure. But we all share a responsibility for keeping the county the wonderful place that makes it such a joy to inhabit.

Water vole (c) Paul Gregory