Canal Restoration

Hello botanical friends,

It was wonderful to see so many of you on Saturday. It was a wonderful day (what can go wrong when tea and cakes are involved?) with a fantastic talk from John Warren which I am still absorbing. I am looking forward to the publication of his new book, and fear that he may be right that it is a "gateway drug to botanical complexity".

On a more sober note, we also passed on details of a canal restoration project which could spell disaster for endangered species where they should be protected: 

Montgomery Canal Restoration Project

Work is due to start this month on restoring a 4-mile section of the Montgomery Canal from Llanymynech to Arddleen and creation of three 'off-line' nature reserves. The project is part of a £14 million levelling up fund grant to the Canal and Rivers Trust in partnership with Powys County Council, announced in the autumn 2021 budget, supported by Montgomeryshire's MP. Eventually the intention is to connect the canal with the wider network for navigation to Newtown.

Background and emerging issues

Restoration of the canal has been ongoing for decades. A partnership agreement was made in 2005 for sustainable restoration: https://docslib.org/doc/5560443/montgomery-canal-regeneration-through-sustainable-restoration-a-conservation-management-strategy The agreement recognised the negative impact of motorised boats on the rare flora and planned to mitigate this by creating large areas of offline reserves and capping the number of boat movements annually. Since then, Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust has left the partnership because of the effect of motorised boats on the flora. The Trust recently released a petition to save the canal's wildlife (https://action.wildlifetrusts.org/page/120429/action/1?mode=DEMO&locale=en-GB) and earlier in the week a group of naturalists sent a letter to Powys County Times arguing for horse-drawn boats (https://www.montwt.co.uk/news/wildlife-experts-want-only-horse-drawn-boats-montgomeryshire-canal-sac) as a solution.

Consultation

A more detailed response is being considered in the form of an article for the next newsletter however, in the intervening time you may wish to make your own thoughts known:

1) Powys County Council has an online consultation about the project which you may like to contribute to here: https://en.powys.gov.uk/article/13669/Montgomery-Canal-Restoration-Project

2) On Friday 27th at 11:30 in Llanymynech there is a meeting organised by Powys County Councillor Adam Kennerley, the Assistant Portfolio Holder for Biodiversity, bringing together the various stakeholders to try to understand all elements of the project. It would be tremendously helpful to include one or two naturalists with a detailed understanding of the canal to share their knowledge about the wildlife, particularly of the aquatic flora. Dr Kate Thorne (BSBI referee for Montgomeryshire) is contributing to discussions but is unavailable for the meeting.

More details to follow.

 

Article from the Archives number two

We are all looking for those first few signs that signal spring is on the way. High winds and lots of rain have made it a little difficult to get out and about, but the day length is inching out and a sunny hour out looking at plants is most welcome.   

It seems appropriate to look back at an article that was originally published in the Society Newsletter in spring 2001. This article was written by Dr Sarah Whild and might hopefully be a useful reminder or prove helpful to new recorders. 

Note: V. riviniana and V. reichenbachiana are virtually impossible to tell apart vegetatively. Mountain Pansy can also be blue and yellow but can always be determined by the large flowers and creeping habit. 

All newsletters are a available and can be found here.

We are looking forward to seeing you at our winter meeting at Preston Montford this Saturday 21st January at 2PM. We have John Warren as a guest speaker coming to discuss his new book "Frustrating Flowers and Puzzling Plants". John will be taking a look at some of these plant groups and discussing different approaches to help identify them. 

Articles from the archives

Happy New Year!

It is only a few weeks before we have our winter meeting at Preston Montford on Saturday 21st January at 2PM. We have John Warren as a guest speaker coming to discuss his new book "Frustrating Flowers and Puzzling Plants". John will be taking a look at some of these plant groups and discussing different approaches to help identify them. 

In the intervening time this is the first of a series of posts looking articles that were originally published in the Society Newsletter and might be useful either as a reminder or to help new recorders. This article was written by Dr Sarah Whild, it is a series of small sketches and a brief description of ferns that you might find on walls in Shropshire.

This was originally published in autumn 1998. The taxonomy has changed since it was originally published and both Rustyback Fern Ceterach officinarum and Hart's-tongue Fern are now located in Asplenium, becoming Asplenium ceterach and A. scolopendrium.

All the newsletters are available and can be found here.

We shall look forward to seeing you on the 21st.