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.
