DATES: NEXT WORKING PARTY: April 7, May  Meet at 10am at Stara Bridge. Do come & join us if you can.

SNOW AGAIN!

Well, we really DID get snow in March, and how! I didn’t manage to get down to take any photos, but thanks to Stuart Dow who took these:

SIMON’S NEWS

As the poor weather has persisted, our footbridge and paths in Broadwood are still closed (at the time of writing). We will re-open the bridge as soon as we get some better weather and the paths dry out. Please be patient and stick to the Colquite side for the time being.

We are currently putting together a new website for Stara so that Friends of Stara Woods can find out more about events and activities. As a massive favour, Martin Russell of Webcube Media is helping us with the IT. We are currently on the lookout for up to date photographs of the woods, so if you have any good digital images which we could use, please send them to Anne or myself as soon as you can. Many thanks.

The Working Party will be meeting on the 7th April at 10.00am. Please come along if you can for some fresh air and camaraderie. We will be cutting willow shoots to make barriers along the river bank to protect the river gravels. These are important spawning areas for a range of fish species including salmon so it is important that these are not disturbed by dogs or walkers.

Simon Humphreys

WEAR & TEAR & DOGS!

There was a lot of discussion at our last committee meeting about the difficulty in keeping the fine balance between the needs of the flora and fauna of the woods (after all, the woods are their home) and recreational use by the public, and by dog-walkers in particular. While we want the public to have access to the woods and enjoy their beauty and health benefits, it’s also really important that those doing this really understand and respect the woods and all their inhabitants, particularly now that we are entering breeding and growth time, when many species are particularly vulnerable. The serious erosion of the river bank in Broad Wood was noted as a significant problem It was decided to: put a notice on the bridge that all dogs must be on leads in Broad & Treovis woods, and explaining why.

The next working party to concentrate on brashing the riverside to control access and erosion.

Just to end, a couple of photos to remind us of the flora and fauna! A red admiral on a bluebell, a wood anemone, and the release of the salmon fry into the river in 2012. Some of those that survived long enough to migrate into the oceans will now have returned to the River Lynher and maybe even spawned again. That’s how important the river is!