I was asked if I could help provide some green woodcraft activity for some of the Forestry Commission staff that were attending a meeting in Chopwell Wood yesterday. As this mouse and a few other members of the Friends of Chopwell Wood recently underwent four days of training and experience to enable us to pass on these skills, I thought that it would be a wonderful opportunity to show the Forestry Commission folks what we do in their wood. While I do frequently call it my wood, that is just because it’s my home base from a landscape and conservation perspective, and while the Forestry Commission owns the land, it is in fact the communities’ wood.
However, I only tell you all this to set the scene, as after I had set up the equipment, as any reader of my old Blog will know we made a Shave Horse and Pole lathe, I was offered some lunch and the opportunity to hear a talk by Keith Bowey the head of Northern Kites.
Again my regular reader knows, I am passionate about the Red Kites, any day that I see them lifts my spirits and the way that the local community gets excited about seeing these birds is amazing. Every time I meet a stranger and they see I am carrying a camera or binoculars (That’s all the Time), I am asked if I have seen the Kites!
Yesterday I met the man who has inspired that passion, Keith Bowey. Every now and then you get to meet someone who really shares a passion, and for me that happened yesterday.
I have personally felt that far to often when conservation projects happen that everyone should be told of what is occurring. That way people can be enthused by great wildlife. One of the things that the Northern Kites team did was to tell everyone that “Hey we are reintroducing this bird into the area” rather than keep it all secret. This has had the positive effect of ensuring that the birds were not persecuted. Persecution is why the Red Kite nearly became extinct in the first place. In the 1930s it was down to one breading female.
That was how close we all came to loosing this fantastic bird.
Right from the start, Northern Kites, got the community involved and all of the birds have been adopted and named by local schools, in fact we need the kites to breed faster as more schools want to adopt the birds that have yet to be laid and hatched yet! By being so public and getting the community support and involvement when one of the birds was poisoned in the first year, the community condemnation, especially from children, has prevented it happening again.
The Red Kites were one of the prime factors that caused me to move to my village in the first place.
I wish I could convey the passion that Keith Bowey has, personally he has inspired me a new and I can see great thing for my wood, our community woodland that is Chopwell Wood.
However, I only tell you all this to set the scene, as after I had set up the equipment, as any reader of my old Blog will know we made a Shave Horse and Pole lathe, I was offered some lunch and the opportunity to hear a talk by Keith Bowey the head of Northern Kites.
Again my regular reader knows, I am passionate about the Red Kites, any day that I see them lifts my spirits and the way that the local community gets excited about seeing these birds is amazing. Every time I meet a stranger and they see I am carrying a camera or binoculars (That’s all the Time), I am asked if I have seen the Kites!
Yesterday I met the man who has inspired that passion, Keith Bowey. Every now and then you get to meet someone who really shares a passion, and for me that happened yesterday.
I have personally felt that far to often when conservation projects happen that everyone should be told of what is occurring. That way people can be enthused by great wildlife. One of the things that the Northern Kites team did was to tell everyone that “Hey we are reintroducing this bird into the area” rather than keep it all secret. This has had the positive effect of ensuring that the birds were not persecuted. Persecution is why the Red Kite nearly became extinct in the first place. In the 1930s it was down to one breading female.
That was how close we all came to loosing this fantastic bird.
Right from the start, Northern Kites, got the community involved and all of the birds have been adopted and named by local schools, in fact we need the kites to breed faster as more schools want to adopt the birds that have yet to be laid and hatched yet! By being so public and getting the community support and involvement when one of the birds was poisoned in the first year, the community condemnation, especially from children, has prevented it happening again.
The Red Kites were one of the prime factors that caused me to move to my village in the first place.
I wish I could convey the passion that Keith Bowey has, personally he has inspired me a new and I can see great thing for my wood, our community woodland that is Chopwell Wood.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment