NEWS

It Ain’t ‘alf Hot! (or has been):

Well, we certainly got temperatures of over 30 degrees as forecast before the last newsletter - and more. But the Commons are as wonderful as ever, just golden rather than green! With the summer holidays upon us and the fête at the end of August, hopefully may of us will be able to enjoy their delights. In such dry, drought, conditions fires are a real risk, so please take care. See the August Newsletter and the Events page with dates for your diary.

Moth Release:

Unfortunately, the planned moth release for mid-June had to be postponed but we do hope to have another date and will post on Newgrapevine as well as the Events page when it is settled. David Dennis and Peter Bygate have just identified their 500th, more on that shortly!

Citizen Science:

As Lindsay Griffin says in the newsletter, we are very keen to hear about your sightings on the Commons. The more eyes and ears there are the more we learn about the nature of our environment. There are lots of photographs of butterflies, moths, and flowers etc in the Photo Gallery section to help identify them. Use the ‘Contact Us’ tab at the bottom of this page to tell us anything, or post on ‘Newgrapevine’.

We also want to support the Chalk Stream Citizen Science work of Chilterns National Landscape. This is important in helping nature’s recovery of our 9 Chilterns Chalk Streams in the Chilterns. Iona McMillan gave an excellent talk in April which highlighted the vital role played by citizens’ observations in, for example, detecting pollution incidents and monitoring restoration schemes and she explained how everyone can get involved. Do visit the Project’s website at www.chilternstreams.org/ and find the links to the Citizens’ Science page www.chilternstreams.org/our-work/citizen-science/, together with much else.

Committee:

The present Committee was re-elected. We have two vacancies and would welcome new faces. We need Committee members to help organse and support our work, from transplanting snowdrops, planting native daffodils, and propagating rare species such harebells; to other activities such as raising awareness of the importance of our environment through our website, talks, activities such as moth events, and through newsletters etc. And we want to help young people learn more about our Commons through the DofE scheme. If you would like to join our friendly group please get in touch with our Chairman, Richard Wilne richard.wilne@gmail.com.

‘Our Important Polinators’:

John Catton and David Dennis, Bee, Butterfly and Moth experts, gave excellent talks on the decline in insect life both globally and locally prior to the AGM last year. If you have not read their commentary you can find it here. Its well worth reading.

Heather on the Commons

Following some great work by Janet Hopkinson and a team of helpers last year all the bracken was removed from the heather beds and these were wonderful last Autumn, thank you! But, as bracken does, it has come back, so more work has been done. This will be one of the jobs for a working party next year, so we will be looking for volunteers.

Last year, before, during …. and after!