The new Trust events programme can be downloaded from http://www.teeswildlife.org/TVWT%20Events%202010.pdf
Monday 25 January 2010
2010 Events Programme
The new Trust events programme can be downloaded from http://www.teeswildlife.org/TVWT%20Events%202010.pdf
Wednesday 20 January 2010
Amazing pictures
Visit http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8466000/8466208.stm for some amazing pictures of our living seas.
Tuesday 19 January 2010
Tees Valley Wildlife Trust launches vision for Living Seas
Tees Valley Wildlife Trust has launched Living Seas, its vision for the UK’s marine environment – where wildlife thrives from the depths of the ocean to the coastal shallows; where rocky reefs are bursting with brightly coloured fish, corals and sponges, and dolphins and seals dart among the waves – at an event in the House of Commons.
The launch follows the passing, in November, of the Marine and Coastal Access Act (MCAA), for which The Wildlife Trusts campaigned for nearly a decade. The challenge for the next five years is to ensure the Act is effectively implemented – that urgent action is taken to turn the UK’s over-fished, over-exploited, and currently under-protected waters back into a thriving marine environment. The Wildlife Trusts have a clear vision for how this should happen, and a plan for achieving it within 20 years, a single generation.
The Wildlife Trusts are achieving great things across the UK, working at the local level to understand, protect and raise awareness of our marine wildlife and habitats, from seagrass meadows to dolphins and seals.
Despite just 38 miles of coastline, the Tees Valley has a lot to offer with respect to marine wildlife. The coastal cliffs of the Tees Valley including the Trust’s reserve at Hunt Clifff near Saltburn are home to internationally important numbers of breeding kittiwakes, alongside other seabirds such as fulmars and cormorants, while the grassland clifftops are home to coastal wildflowers including Dyer’s Greenweed, Spiny Restharrow, Sea Plantain and Wild Carrot.
The majority of the coastline however, consists of shingle beaches and sand and mud flats. Such areas are both important breeding areas for little terns and ringed plovers, and important feeding grounds for sanderling and oystercatchers.
As a direct result of environmental improvements by local industry and the work of the Trust and other organisations such as INCA, common seals have returned to the Teesmouth after an absence of nearly 60 years, the only known estuary in Europe where seals have done so for this reason. Small but successful breeding populations have established themselves at Seal Sands, Greatham Creek and Billingham Beck, and now account for 2% of the English population.
Professor Aubrey Manning, BBC television presenter and president of The Wildlife Trusts, launched the Living Seas vision¹. He said: “The Living Seas vision is very direct in its aims. It sets out a clear plan of how we, The Wildlife Trusts, and our partners and supporters, can help achieve them. The opportunities that the Marine and Coastal Access Act has opened up need to be seized on immediately. We can no longer continue to treat the oceans as limitless. In particular, we need an effective and well-managed network of Marine Protected Areas by 2012.
“We may not get another opportunity to make Living Seas a reality. The future of our oceans hangs in the balance, and we want to tip it in the right direction for wildlife, and for the people – all of us – who depend upon it.”
Steve Ashton, People and Wildlife Manager for Tees Valley Wildlife Trust, said: “These are exciting times and the Trust is looking forward to working with local people to ensue that we achieve the Living Seas vision of thriving wildlife from the depths of the ocean to the coastal shallows.”
To find out more about Living Seas, to download our vision or to learn about local events occurring at your local Wildlife Trusts coastal nature reserves visit http://www.northseawildlife.org.uk/
The Wildlife Trusts have been campaigning for many years for comprehensive legislation to achieve better protection for marine wildlife and the effective management of our seas. For more information, visit
http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/index.php?section=environment:marine
The launch follows the passing, in November, of the Marine and Coastal Access Act (MCAA), for which The Wildlife Trusts campaigned for nearly a decade. The challenge for the next five years is to ensure the Act is effectively implemented – that urgent action is taken to turn the UK’s over-fished, over-exploited, and currently under-protected waters back into a thriving marine environment. The Wildlife Trusts have a clear vision for how this should happen, and a plan for achieving it within 20 years, a single generation.
The Wildlife Trusts are achieving great things across the UK, working at the local level to understand, protect and raise awareness of our marine wildlife and habitats, from seagrass meadows to dolphins and seals.
Despite just 38 miles of coastline, the Tees Valley has a lot to offer with respect to marine wildlife. The coastal cliffs of the Tees Valley including the Trust’s reserve at Hunt Clifff near Saltburn are home to internationally important numbers of breeding kittiwakes, alongside other seabirds such as fulmars and cormorants, while the grassland clifftops are home to coastal wildflowers including Dyer’s Greenweed, Spiny Restharrow, Sea Plantain and Wild Carrot.
The majority of the coastline however, consists of shingle beaches and sand and mud flats. Such areas are both important breeding areas for little terns and ringed plovers, and important feeding grounds for sanderling and oystercatchers.
As a direct result of environmental improvements by local industry and the work of the Trust and other organisations such as INCA, common seals have returned to the Teesmouth after an absence of nearly 60 years, the only known estuary in Europe where seals have done so for this reason. Small but successful breeding populations have established themselves at Seal Sands, Greatham Creek and Billingham Beck, and now account for 2% of the English population.
Professor Aubrey Manning, BBC television presenter and president of The Wildlife Trusts, launched the Living Seas vision¹. He said: “The Living Seas vision is very direct in its aims. It sets out a clear plan of how we, The Wildlife Trusts, and our partners and supporters, can help achieve them. The opportunities that the Marine and Coastal Access Act has opened up need to be seized on immediately. We can no longer continue to treat the oceans as limitless. In particular, we need an effective and well-managed network of Marine Protected Areas by 2012.
“We may not get another opportunity to make Living Seas a reality. The future of our oceans hangs in the balance, and we want to tip it in the right direction for wildlife, and for the people – all of us – who depend upon it.”
Steve Ashton, People and Wildlife Manager for Tees Valley Wildlife Trust, said: “These are exciting times and the Trust is looking forward to working with local people to ensue that we achieve the Living Seas vision of thriving wildlife from the depths of the ocean to the coastal shallows.”
To find out more about Living Seas, to download our vision or to learn about local events occurring at your local Wildlife Trusts coastal nature reserves visit http://www.northseawildlife.org.uk/
The Wildlife Trusts have been campaigning for many years for comprehensive legislation to achieve better protection for marine wildlife and the effective management of our seas. For more information, visit
http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/index.php?section=environment:marine
Monday 18 January 2010
The Wildlife Trusts welcome the North Sea Marine Conservation Zone Project
The Wildlife Trusts last week welcomed the start of an exciting and new process to designate Marine Protected Areas within the North Sea.
Over the past week, The North Sea Wildlife Trust’s Marine Advocacy Officer and other Wildlife Trust staff have been attending a roadshow up and down the North Sea coastline aimed at introducing Net Gain, the North Sea Marine Conservation Project to conservationists and sea users and to give people the opportunity to ask questions and voice concern and interest over the projects process.
These initial meetings organised and lead by Net Gain have provided conservationists and users of the sea with key details as to how and when Marine Conservation Zones will be identified. This process will help us all to secure the long-term health of the North Sea and the marine life within it.
Fishermen, government agencies, conservationists, recreational sea users and those from the commercial sector as well as many more are all being encouraged to get involved in the process of identify North Sea Marine Conservation Zones, in order to ensure their long term success. In the coming months and up to June 2011 sites will be identified by these stakeholders with an interest in the sea and its marine life. The Wildlife Trust are committed to being fully involved in the entire process, championing species and habitats that are in most need of protection and ensuring the network that is established is ecologically coherent allowing our marine wildlife to adapt and move as our climate changes.
Over the past week, The North Sea Wildlife Trust’s Marine Advocacy Officer and other Wildlife Trust staff have been attending a roadshow up and down the North Sea coastline aimed at introducing Net Gain, the North Sea Marine Conservation Project to conservationists and sea users and to give people the opportunity to ask questions and voice concern and interest over the projects process.
These initial meetings organised and lead by Net Gain have provided conservationists and users of the sea with key details as to how and when Marine Conservation Zones will be identified. This process will help us all to secure the long-term health of the North Sea and the marine life within it.
Fishermen, government agencies, conservationists, recreational sea users and those from the commercial sector as well as many more are all being encouraged to get involved in the process of identify North Sea Marine Conservation Zones, in order to ensure their long term success. In the coming months and up to June 2011 sites will be identified by these stakeholders with an interest in the sea and its marine life. The Wildlife Trust are committed to being fully involved in the entire process, championing species and habitats that are in most need of protection and ensuring the network that is established is ecologically coherent allowing our marine wildlife to adapt and move as our climate changes.
Thursday 14 January 2010
More sites needed for ponds
The Trusts Pondscapes Officer is looking for 5 sites where she can create new ponds. We have funding and a work team ready to come and dig them. We can'ts do schools or gardens but anywhere else is fine. If you would like more details contact Rachel on 01287 636382.
Wednesday 13 January 2010
New video on Wildlife Watch Web Site
The new Wildlife Watch web site has just up loaded a new video with Nick Baker showing you how to keep you bird bath ice free - well worth a look at http://www.youtube.com/user/WildlifeWatchUK .
Tuesday 5 January 2010
The Wildlife Trusts delighted with New Year Honours
Stephanie Hilborne, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, has become an OBE for services to nature conservation.
Michael Allen, chair of The Wildlife Trusts, said: “We are all delighted at this signal honour and it is recognition of the enormous commitment and energy which Stephanie always shows in our work.”
Other members of the movement received recognition, including:
Sir Nicholas Bacon, president of Norfolk Wildlife Trust, received an OBE for services to the community in Norfolk. He runs the 5,500 acre Raveningham Estate near Norwich. He was president of the Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association last year and was elected chairman of the RNAA's ruling council in January.
Simon King, The Wildlife Trusts’ vice-president, received an OBE for services to wildlife photography and to conservation.
Farmyard story author and vice-president of Avon Wildlife Trust, Dick King-Smith, 87, received an OBE for services to children's literature. In the past 30 years he has written dozens of books, selling over five million copies in the UK alone, and had one of his stories, The Sheep-Pig, turned into the hit film Babe. The 1995 film catapulted the author, who is to global fame. His first story, The Fox Busters, was published when he was in his 50s in 1978.
Jean Hedley was made an MBE for her tireless service to nature conservation. She was chairman of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust for eight years before becoming president of the organisation she joined with her husband Richard in 1962.
Valerie Holt, chair of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust and executive secretary and treasurer of the Institute of Fisheries Management (IFM), was given an MBE for services to fisheries management and conservation. She championed the wildlife cause throughout her professional career at the Environment Agency.
Michael Allen, chair of The Wildlife Trusts, said: “We are all delighted at this signal honour and it is recognition of the enormous commitment and energy which Stephanie always shows in our work.”
Other members of the movement received recognition, including:
Sir Nicholas Bacon, president of Norfolk Wildlife Trust, received an OBE for services to the community in Norfolk. He runs the 5,500 acre Raveningham Estate near Norwich. He was president of the Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association last year and was elected chairman of the RNAA's ruling council in January.
Simon King, The Wildlife Trusts’ vice-president, received an OBE for services to wildlife photography and to conservation.
Farmyard story author and vice-president of Avon Wildlife Trust, Dick King-Smith, 87, received an OBE for services to children's literature. In the past 30 years he has written dozens of books, selling over five million copies in the UK alone, and had one of his stories, The Sheep-Pig, turned into the hit film Babe. The 1995 film catapulted the author, who is to global fame. His first story, The Fox Busters, was published when he was in his 50s in 1978.
Jean Hedley was made an MBE for her tireless service to nature conservation. She was chairman of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust for eight years before becoming president of the organisation she joined with her husband Richard in 1962.
Valerie Holt, chair of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust and executive secretary and treasurer of the Institute of Fisheries Management (IFM), was given an MBE for services to fisheries management and conservation. She championed the wildlife cause throughout her professional career at the Environment Agency.
Monday 4 January 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
