Welcome

Hello and welcome to 2006. As some of you may already know, my name is Nicky Davies and on 11th January, I commenced employment as Biodiversity Partnership co-ordinator, based at the Town Hall in Hereford. This contract will run for 3 years and in that time, much is to be achieved and I am excited to be in the fortunate position of assisting the partnership in taking the Herefordshire local biodiversity action plan forwards and ensuring actions and targets are delivered.

I grew up in Hay-on Wye and have spent the past 8 years in the wild lands of Shetland and the Outer Hebrides with a 3-year educational break in Pembrokeshire. I have a love for nature conservation and previous work includes working as LBAP Officer in Shetland, site manager on the Isle of Noss NNR in Shetland, and working as research assistant on South Uist in the Outer Hebrides monitoring twite.

Over the next few months, I will be getting out and meeting partners involved in the process and ensuring that the plan is being implemented and that people are happy with the tasks that lay ahead of them.

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Local Biodiversity Action Plan update, 2005

At last, the update of the Herefordshire Biodiversity action plan has been published and is back from the printers. It comes in a slim-line format and is written in a succinct and user-friendly style. The plan contains 17 species action plans and 24 habitat action plans. Some of these are existing plans that need to continue due to ongoing threats and some are new plans that have been identified as needing extra help.

Since the first BAP was published in 2000, 76% of its objectives have been completed. This demonstrates how successful the partnership has been, especially as some of these were highly ambitious, but this shows how the BAP process can complement existing projects and lend a new light to partners on how to tackle the hurdles facing them.

We are aiming at launching the Biodiversity Action Plan update in the springtime and further news about this will be published nearer to the time, so watch this space…

The plan includes habitat action plans for: -

• Lowland acid grassland
• Lowland calcareous grassland
• Cereal field margins
• Lowland meadow and pasture
• Lowland heathland
• Blanket bog
• Upland calcareous grassland
• Purple moor grass
• Upland heathland
• Upland mixed ashwood
• Lowland oak & mixed woodland
• Lowland beech & yew woodland
• Lowland wood pasture & parkland
• Upland oak woodland
• Floodplain grazing marsh
• Eutrophic water
• Rivers and streams
• Mesotrophic water
• Wet woodlands
• Orchards
• Managed greenspace
• Quarries
• Ancient species-rich hedgerows
• Fens

 

Species action plans apply for: -

• Polecat
• Adder
• Barn Owl
• Pink waxcap
• High-brown fritillary
• Tree sparrow
• Argent & sable
• Wood white
• Grizzled skipper
• Bats
• Pearl-bordered fritillary
• Water vole
• White clawed crayfish
• Noble chafer
• Carder bumblebee
• Black poplar
• Dormouse

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Herefordshire Biological Records Centre
By Steve Roe, Biological Records Centre Manager

Herefordshire Biological Records Centre (HBRC) was formally established in 2001, the culmination of some years’ discussions and decisions amongst the recording community and many organisations such as (but not exclusively) English Nature, Herefordshire Council, and the Herefordshire Nature Trust.

We are fortunate in Herefordshire to live in a rich environment. HBRC collects and provides access to information on the wildlife that can be found in our county to the communities and to decision makers so they can make wise decisions about management.

Key to the success of HBRC, and hence the county BAP, is the work of recording societies / interest groups and their expert recorder(s). HBRC receives many records from many sources but by far the most numerous are those submitted by, or received from, the various local or national recording schemes or societies. HBRC has been playing a key role in collating analysing records gathered from a variety of recording-based projects, most notably the Rare Plants Register in association with the Botanical Society of the British Isles and Herefordshire Botanical Society, the Community Commons Project run by Herefordshire Nature Trust and the Pond and Newts Project that is being run by the Herefordshire Amphibian and Reptile Team. HBRC recently published the Dragonflies of Herefordshire and it is very much hoped that this will stimulate further future publications and new recording.

HBRC has been active within the framework of the Herefordshire BAP by:

• Developing and supporting the network of Herefordshire recorders / groups (for example holding Recorders Meetings or organising site recording or training)
• Work to database and analyse records for key sites
• Support users by providing access to data, and developing solutions to data provision locally such as a web portal for records access and for records submission
• Work towards the publication of an Atlas of Herefordshire Reptiles & Amphibians, plus other publications
• Providing data for planning and policy work, so as to promote well planned and locally relevant recording and monitoring
• Incorporating data on priority species into the HBRC database and ensuring that legally protected species information is available in future to planners and decision makers: to enable them to fulfil their responsibilities fully.

Click here for more information about HBRC.

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The Herefordshire Biodiversity Partnership

The partnership consists of a wide-ranging selection of organisations and local businesses, all of whom have a part to play in the local biodiversity process. Some may have conservation at the forefront of their agenda such as English Nature, Hereford Nature Trust and Butterfly Conservation, whilst others may contribute through their industry such as the Forestry Commission, Welsh Water and DEFRA. Others may be voluntary interest groups such as Herefordshire Ornithological group and Herefordshire Amphibian and Reptile Team. Landowners play a large part in the process and without their involvement it would be very difficult to further the progress of the plan.

Lead Partners
English Nature, Herefordshire Council, Herefordshire Nature Trust, West Midlands Rural Development Service, National Farmers Union, Hereford shire Biological Records Centre, Forestry Commission, Forest Enterprise, DEFRA, FWAG, Duchy of Cornwall, Environment Agency Wales, Countryside Business and Landowners Association, H.P.Bulmers Ltd, Herefordshire Partnership, Countryside Council for Wales, Advantage West Midlands, Tarmac Western Limited, Hanson's Aggregate Industries, Butterfly Conservation, Vincent Wildlife Trust, National Trust Estate Office, Wye Valley AONB, Malvern Hills AONB, Malvern Hills Conservators, Welsh Water

Key partners
Hereford Amphibian and Reptile Team, Herefordshire Action for Mammals, Herefordshire Botanical Society, Marchers Apple Network, The Big Apple, River Monnow Project, Caring for Gods Acre, The National Trust, Timber Growers Association, The Game Conservancy Trust, Woodland Trust, Herefordshire Sustain, River Wye Preservation Trust, Woolhope Club, British Association of Shooting & Conservation, The Deer Initiative, Friends of the Lugg, Herefordshire Ornithological Club, Herefordshire Fungus Survey Group, Countryside Restoration Trust, Plantlife, Buglife

The Herefordshire Biodiversity Partnership Co-ordinator post is joint-funded by English Nature and Herefordshire Council.