h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A41/A49 correction:

A41 in the 4th paragraph should read A49 though further west there are places where the A41 runs along a Roman route and I can't trace where it joins the 'Roman A49' and goes on into Whitchurch. It's odd there are two Roman roads coming from the south west. One comes through Roman Viroconium. The seems to branch off to bypass it going north then swinging round west to Whitchurch.

Sorry about that, never have been able to remember which road was was which.

I believe at least some of the Government storage units are no longer used to store grain. One appears to be used by a local haulier.

I haven't seen cattle or goats tethered on the heath for a couple of years now.

The ploughing along the road up to Ash is now within 12" of the tarmac and the only poppies I noticed flowering this year were where there's a set of what look like water point markers.

The petrol station at the Prees Heath junction has changed hands and doesn't presently serve coffee.

Excellent news .

This spring, the ploughing either side of the road over the heath to Ash came right up to the edge of the tarmac, so close that the plough shares turned the earth over onto the road.

When it came to sowing however, a strip of about six metres was left unsown. Now, in July, that strip is a mass of mixed white ox-eye daisies, red poppies and purple thistles. It's beautiful.

And even better; Butterfly Conservation have succeeded in getting grant funding from GrantScape to buy 60 hectares or 130 to 148 acres (depending which report you read) of the heath. That's about a third of it. The SSI covers about one sixth of the site. (Grant funding for their previous proposal to buy the heath had lapsed.) Together with the Shropshire and Cheshire Wildlife Trusts they will create a 'major nature reserve' there and manage and restore the heathland. The present owners, Prees Heath Ltd, have agreed the sale. GrantScape's funding provides most of what's needed and an appeal has been launched for the balancing £45,000.

They say that the blue butterflies can create a blue shimmer over the heath. That would be a sght to see.

There may be some legal hurdles yet to overcome as the Commoners have challenged to concept of selling common land in the past. Fingers crossed for that and the fundraising.

To the Heath, the Silver-studded Blue, the skylarks, linnets, and even the daft rabbits; .

And one left, , for anyone who finds their way here to this remote corner of h2g2.

That is excellent news! It just shows how resilient nature can be given half a chance.

Part of the heath belongs to Butterfly Conservation http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/index.php.

Their area lies in the triangle between the A41 and A49, around and behind the old grainstores (which are now up for sale).

They've appointed someone to manage restoration of the heathland. A public start was made today, with anyone interested being invited to 1) come see the blue butterflies, 2) help clear rubbish.

Several JCB bucket loads of rubbish were removed, but there's an awful lot left. There's everything, kids toys, clothes, builders debris, broken glass, domestic waste ... dead chickens, very old, dead, chickens ... but the heath is beautiful all the same. Lots of wildflowers, lots of scarlet pimpernels - you don't find those so often now, skylarks, mistle thrushes, a small dark and furry something to quick to identify, and of course butterflies.

It didn't quite shimmer with silver studded blues, but they were everywhere. Twentyish in view at one time, at one time. Accompanied by gatekeepers, meadow brown, red admirals, tortoiseshells and one rather tatty painted lady.

This part of Prees Heath is coming back to life.

Great news!

Isn't it . And good to have someone down here sharing it.

And also brilliant to be right on the spot to see it brought back , and get to know the place. Really get to know it.

You can't but feel attached when you've been rummaging through its corners picking up, sometimes digging up, rubbish. It's like grooming among monkeys, I guess . Though not reciprocal, in this case .

Had a call from the warden yesterday - botannical survey mid August, BBC filming of a bird walk and moth trap setting up, also in August, and another litter pick-up in early September.
Waz

I'll keep a record here, never know, it might make another entry sometime - 'Bringing the Heath Back'.

They've a three year plan to meet to fulfill grant requirements.

I'll look forward to reading about it. On some level the monkeys do appreciate good grooming, I think, even if they don't often show it.

During the autumn there were more litter/rubbish clearing days, and some scrub clearance - taking out gorse and bramble from existing patches of heather to allow the patches to spread.

The BBC came down to film the blue butterflies and the whole relationship between them and the ants which look after their eggs. That will be shown late summer/early autumn 2007.

There was also a public meeting to discuss what was being done there and to get opinions on how to deal with some issues. Like protecting the site from further rubbish dumping, restricting access, dealing with the large area of ragwort and what to do with the old WW" air control 'tower'.

That's WW2, not WW".

The meeting also brought up some old issues over ownership of the land, commoners' rights and access rights of people living on the heath.

Double celebration today JtG?

Number one, Alan Johnston freed.

Number two, the Prees Heath Common Reserve was officially declared open .

It opened with marquees, an exhibition from the Tilstock school children, speeches, food of course, a poem from a 'commoner' (), a blue ribbon cut, and tours. It was a big show of support. The police even closed the main and very busy A49 for us to cross over from the marquees to the reserve. And although it rained a bit, the butterflies showed up on cue.

A lot of progress has been made, it's really beginning to look as if people care for that bit of the heath. The butterflies, and everything else in their ecosystem - it's not just about butterflies, are doing well in patches along the old runway. The re-creation of heathland and other habitats on the cultivated part of the site (that had the tons of chicken manure dumped on it) is a long term project. It's started with turning the earth over to a depth of up to 90cm to bury the fertilised and now too alkaline soil.

The other two thirds of the heath, outside the reserve, are not doing so well. Great piles of manure are spread there still and the ploughed area increases every season. Other than on the edges and on the tracks of the old runways where the remaining lumps of concrete prevent ploughing, there's little, if any, wildlife value left.

The old grain stores along the edge of the reserve have been put on the market by DEFRA for a reported £1m but they have been for sale over a year now. There are colonies of silver studded blues within the grain store areas, as a protected species that presents a problem and a limitation for any prospective buyers.

Eleanor Cooke said the degredation of the heath was a sympton of something going wrong in our society. It was/is certainly a sign of lack of care and respect for the life and community around us. But what's happened on the reserve area is a also symbol of the opposite. People were caring about that part, trying to keep parts of the heath alive, long before there was much hope of saving it. That's why there's something there to save. And now those bits are thriving, the bits that were buried under piles of rubbish are greening over and growing and it shouldn't be long before a start can be made to put new heather on the ploughed areas.

Thanks for the updates. Sorry I haven't been very good company. In fact, I just popped in to take down the free Alan Johnston stuff now that he is free. Wonderful news. And the news about the heath reserve is wondeful too.

Alan Johnston

Prees Heath Common Reserve

JTG

You're fine company.

I thought you might drop in for that .

Cheers JTG,

Waz

LLwaz, that's wonderful news.

It is amazing what can be done when people care enough, and with that kind of attention nature will do the rest.

Thanks for telling us about it. It is good to have some positive news for a change. Rich's thread about the deletion of their Reserves officer was very depressing.



Websailor

Deleting a post like that is a shame. Prees Heath's Warden is a temporary post. We'll have him until 2010, after which the plan is for a local group of volunteers to run it.

There are some issues that really need to be sorted out I think, before a volunteer group can take over. For one thing, the re-creation of the heathland is a long term thing - more like ten years. But we know from the start that that's what's planned and with support on technical stuff from the Butterfly Conservation Trust it ought to work.

Great news on both counts.

Friday 15t May 2009 9.15

At 13.00 today LLWaz, the keeper and recorder of the Heath and of all lovely places in the countries of her wanderings, will be married to the partner who shares so many of her interests.

We wish both of them every happiness and joy in their life together.

from all h2g2 researchers.

Christiane M.E.
AlsoRan80